SE to NW Part 1

Ed Note: Keith Novosel is a photographer currently based out of Portland, Oregon--you can check out his work at fluidmotionphoto.com. In spring 2010 he contacted NW Surf & Snow find out about the NW surf scene and to let us know he was moving to the NW from Florida via a cross-country road trip. One thing led to another, and we decided to run a journal-style piece about his trip.

Florida

When I wasn‘t using surf photography as my ticket to travel and live abroad over the past several years, the northeast coast of Florida was my base. It was always comforting to come home after living out of suitcases for weeks or months at a time. Even with over-development, extreme heat, mosquitoes, flat land, a tourism dependant economy, and all of the other stereotypically negative features of the Sunshine State, there are certainly plenty of very nice people and places around the state. There’s a lot more to it than Disney and Miami. It’s charm lies in the clear, natural springs and lakes in which to cool off on the HOT summer days, the old Live Oak forests with Spanish Moss clinging to their branches, the long coastline with warm water most of the year, and the Southern food and hospitality.

As a surfer, there are some fun days in warm water waves--from small longboard peelers to overhead hurricane barrels. It’s not as bad as non-Florida surfers think it is, but, some of the rumors are certainly true. There are long flat spells, and oftentimes when the waves do come, they’re from nearby storms and onshore wind. Plus it’s all beach break.

My time in Florida was nice, but I was ready for a change. I was ready for Evergreen trees, fewer palms, some mountains, cooler weather, better waves, and new friends and job prospects.

My destination: Portland, Oregon. My girlfriend, Analisa, would be studying there for the next four years to be a naturopathic doctor, and I decided that I would like to come too. Rather than flying, we decided that it would be nice to see the country along the way.

I hadn’t been to many of the central states--spending the majority of my time on the East and California coast. In fact, I had never been to any of the states that we were to drive through. The following observations are based on short-term experiences, and are extreme generalizations…I don’t mean to offend anyone from the states we drove through.

In the middle of the summer, we packed the Jeep with all of our belongings that would fit…leaving just enough room to see out the back window for safety’s sake. We said our goodbyes to family and friends, and headed into Alabama.

Alabama

Although Alabama had similarities to Florida, I could sense distinct differences. It’s farther north on the map, but more Southern in style and history. We drove past many large, old plantation homes, followed by run-down small towns and houses. Looking at the businesses and dwellings, I felt like it could have easily been 1910 instead of 2010. The separation of economic classes was very evident, and it seems like a lot of the old fashioned ideologies are still present.

We stayed with a friend of Analisa’s in the more modern college town of Auburn, where we had a great time simply having dinner, playing Catch Phrase and Pictionary, and shopping for cheap cold weather clothes (there’s not much use for them in July in Alabama).

We left early the next morning to continue our journey… onto Mississippi and Louisiana. Since we didn’t stay overnight in either state, I can’t give much of an impression of them…but I’m certain I would never want to live there. As we crossed the massive Mississippi River it seemed to separate the “Southern” mentality and style from the “Texan.”

Texas

Texas was unlike anywhere I’ve been. It’s massive… and has a mix of so many businesses in the cities and expansive suburbs, and so much empty space everywhere else. All of the people I met were extremely nice, and surprisingly there was more of an artistic/alternative vibe there than any of the previous states. I saw drum circles, art galleries, ice cream shops, horses and farms, any type of restaurant you can think of… there’s even surfable coastline, but we didn’t spend any time there. Texas seems to have a bit of everything--from windmill farms to oil wells (and spills). Time to move on to New Mexico.

Read: part 2.