dude u gotta headcanon the sarchengsey road trip of 2k16 I need the deets
oh hell yes
ronan makes them a mix for the trip. “is it the murder squash song?” gansey asks suspiciously. ronan assures him it is not the murder squash song. gansey, not trusting him, listens to the whole thing, and is surprised to find it doesn’t contain the murder squash song. there’s some irish folk, some house/electronic music, some cool remixes of songs they like, it’s all very enjoyable and surprisingly personal. then, the morning that they set off on the trip, gansey puts the mix in the stereo of blue’s camaro, and it’s all been turned into the murder squash song. ronan can hear them yelling from his room.
but they actually end up keeping the mix so whenever someone falls asleep, they can play it at top volume to wake them up
they start out by heading northwest so that they can avoid both southern summer heat and northern winter bullshit
gansey plays “take me home, country roads” by john denver the whole way through west virginia (which, since henrietta’s fictionally located near harrisonburg/massanutten, is, like a 4 hour drive minimum heading northwest) and blue and henry seriously consider kicking him out of the car and making him walk back to henrietta
at one point they get lost and accidentally end up in cleveland. gansey happens to mention this to ronan, who starts telling them all about how cleveland has an unusually high number of serial killers per capita. they get out of cleveland very quickly.
blue is enthralled by every single new terrain or biome they come across and keeps a journal where she ranks her favorites. the number one spot ends up going to the redwood forests :)))))))))
the three of them leave a trail of hair products a mile wide in their wake
they sleep out under the stars a lot of the time, but sometimes they’ll get a motel room with two beds (blue and gansey share, henry has his own bc personally i’m ambivalent about romantic sarchengsey but if you ship it let’s just say it’s bc henry kicks people in his sleep)
one night they end up in some random field with the entire milky way visible overhead and just lie there watching a meteor shower and then talking for hours
on an especially hot afternoon they come across a little secluded lake and go swimming in their underwear. i’d say skinny-dip but lbrh this is the same gansey who thought blue swimming in capris and a tank top was scandalously sexy. at least some clothes are staying on.
portland, oregon is both wonderful and terrible because half the population is just as much of absurd hipsters as they are
they make sure their route involves looping back and heading south through boston/cambridge in mid-december, so they can pick adam up from harvard and he can ride down with them for the winter holidays
(part of that loop back involves driving through ohio and ronan literally begs them to pose with the “HELL IS REAL” sign)
but anyways picking adam up at harvard
they end up getting to the campus and finding him literally as he’s leaving his last final. he’s tired and stressed and hasn’t slept in two days and still has to finish packing and when he leaves the exam hall he hears? screaming? and for some reason the screaming includes his name? and he’s trying to process what this means when he sees the three of them charging up the pathway towards him
there’s no time for dignity or WASPy detachment, only hugging
the camaro is hella cramped with four people and luggage in it and adam and henry both have to put bags on their laps but they make it work and survive the trip down to henrietta
when they get there they go straight to 300 fox way because maura and calla insisted on it and ronan and opal agreed to meet them there instead of trying to coordinate multiple drop-off locations
there’s more hugging and lots of butter and bacon and excited story swapping and basically no one lets go of each other for hours
it’s like 2 am by the time they all finally get back to monmouth to sleep (henry takes the couch, opal takes noah’s old bedroom which has become her bedroom over the past year or so, obv bluesey take gansey’s bed and pynch take ronan’s room)
they spend like a month back in henrietta and go to nino’s and harry’s and the barns and all their old places a lot
then it’s time to hit the american south
louisiana is super cool and feels old and full of history, because even though it’s early february they were extremely careful to make sure they wouldn’t be in new orleans around mardi gras
there are long stretches of drive through rural texas where the only radio station is fundamentalist christian right-wing politics and blue and henry Want To Die but gansey is immune thanks to his upbringing
do i even need to clarify what natural features they go to see? the rio grande, carlsbad caverns, the grand canyon, death valley, all the classics.
when they’re in california gansey tries to hit as many gold rush ghost towns as possible, but ends up giving it up for the chance to drive up along highway one instead and the entire drive is achingly beautiful
they hit lots of tiny, weird seaside towns with really good grocery stores and eat sandwiches and pie on rocky beaches with cold ocean lapping up at their feet
they go to san francisco for like a day (which is the longest anyone can afford to live in san francisco) and blue tries to convince gansey to take the wheel and go 90 down lombard street. he says no because he’ll probably hit a tourist. after some quick internet research on henry’s phone, blue tries to convince gansey to go 90 down vermont street instead. he still says no.
the golden gate bridge is, admittedly, pretty cool
they drive up to humboldt country to see ferndale and the avenue of the giants and stop at every single middle-of-the-woods tourist trap on the way
they loop back towards virginia again and end up getting back to henrietta a year to the day since they first left
traveling is awesome and they’re gonna do a lot more of it, but for now they’ve got a summer with adam and ronan and opal and possibly a time-traveling camaro to look forward to.
it’s gonna be fucking awesome.
