The person I would take a car trip from Maine to California with would be Heather Morris from the popular television show Glee. The reason I would choose her is because she is similar to me; a peppy dancer and a singer.
When we met in Maine, and decided to take I-81 and then I -40 once we got to Nashville. We were more anxious about the sightseeing than getting to California. Heather decided she would drive first since our first stop was New York City. I was super excited since New York was my dream spot to perform. Heather had been there many times, but was pleased to be my personal tour guide. It took us about 8 hours to get to New York, and on the way we talked about her career with Beyonce. Since I am a dancer, I asked her about how to impress a company. “Practice,” she would repeat. “Practice is the main thing. If you audition and don’t make it, practice harder”. She also would mention things like, “don’t worry about your body, but keep healthy.” I then remembered reading about her having her breast implants removed.
When we got to New York, I was amazed by the lights, the people, the traffic, the food! Even the McDonalds were astoundingly different from the ones in Arkansas! When we arrived, Heather pulled out two tickets to my all time favorite musical: Wicked.
“Heather!” I exclaimed, “Do we have time? After all, we are on a schedule.”
Yes, we’re staying overnight at Plaza.” She replied in a calm voice, showing she had everything under control.
When Wicked was over, we headed over to the Plaza and, of course, we were chased by paparazzi.
“Congratulations, you’ll be on the cover of People magazine,” She said with a smirk.
“Is that a bad thing?” I asked hesitantly.
“Well no, unless you want the world to know you have a pimple.”
“What?!” I yelled, running to the mirror.
“Ha-ha just kidding,” she laughed.
Well, I’m going to sleep” I yawned.
“See you in the morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed!” Heather said as she tossed a pillow at my head, missed, and hit my suitcase instead.
The very next morning, I heard my alarm clock buzzing and I heard Heather yell into her pillow.
We had a long trip ahead of us; in fact 13 hours of driving to reach Nashville.
As I drove, we decided to check out the Nashville Zoo. We figured the paparazzi would hopefully be less hectic than in New York.
Shortly after crossing the Tennessee state line, we got a flat tire.
“See now, I told you I was bad luck when I drive.” I said, trying to blame the flat tire on my “bad luck”.
“That’s not what I’m worried about. We have a creeper alert, 3’oclock.” she said, pointing at a man who was wearing ragged clothes and reminded me of a hobo.
As he approached the car, I felt my body move into “self defense” mode in case this man had any “tricks”.
The man tapped on the window, he had some sort of tool in his hand.
“I see you guys have a flat.” he said, “Can I take a look?” the man asked.
“Sure,” I replied.
After a few minutes, the man came back to my window and said,
“Well, you’re all fixed up now!” He announced, then started to walk away.
“Wait!” I yelled, and jumped out of the car.
Heather grabbed my arm, “Are you out of your mind?!”
“Well I’m not going to let him do it for free!” I exclaimed.
I handed the man $20, and walked back to the car.
I felt bad because I realized the man was a hitchhiker, I wanted to give him a ride. However, I could not risk any danger.
When we reached Nashville, we decided to skip the zoo until the next day; we were so exhausted, we just wanted to sleep. We did not realize there was a motorcycle event in town, and motorcycles were going off all night long. Because of this, we hardly got the sleep we desperately needed.
Our next destination was my home town; Van Buren, Arkansas. The drive wasn’t too long, taking about as long as it took from Maine to New York; 7 hours.
My mom was as eager to meet Heather as Heather was to meet her. Heather was fascinated by my little hometown; she loved how it looked like an old western film brought to life. It reminded her of her home in Arizona and her dad. Her dad passed away when she was fourteen, he died of cancer.
We could only stay in Van Buren for one night, as we had already procrastinated in New York and Nashville and we needed to be in California in three days.
As we were approaching Oklahoma City, we decided to stop and eat at Taco Bell.
We decided to eat in the car in a small park. Suddenly, we heard a rustling behind us.
“Julia, what was that?” Heather asked hesitantly.
“I don’t know,” I said quietly. I turned around and it was a deer!
“Ahhhhhhhh!” Heather and I yelled.
“Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!” cried Heather.
“Heather, that’s not funny!” I scolded.
Startled, the deer ran away.
“Ha, it worked!” Heather said, poking my side.
“Yeah yeah shut it.” I remarked.
As Heather drove through New Mexico, I took several pictures and bought several pieces of turquoise jewelry for my mom.
I drifted off to sleep and then, about 4 hours later, I felt a blow to my shoulder.
“Hey we made it! “ Heather cried.
“Huh?”
“We’re in California; we’re about 2 hours from Los Angeles.”
“Yay! My other dream city: Here I come!” I yelled.
When we got to L.A, the director of Glee, Ryan Murphy asked, “So how was the trip?”
“Well…” Heather and I looked at each other and laughed.