Get your kicks...

I have always wanted to go on a road trip. There are elements of adventure and romance in packing up your car with the absolute essentials and heading out to who know where with a couple of your best buddies. And even though this may have been a popular way to spend leisure time in the first half of the 20^th century, I haven’t been able to convince one of my friends of the merit of taking a trek together.

I’ve heard their excuses like “We would end up hating each other” or “I just don’t like being in the car that long.” I guess their idea of adventure is flying to their destination, where upon landing they would promptly book their hotel room and look into the tourist brochures to see what there is to do around there and then just end up shopping at all the same stores that they have back home. I have no problem with this every so often (Though I do hate it when we end up clothes shopping. I hate clothes shopping!) but I don’t put this down as an adventurous weekend.

I want to avoid interstates and eat at hole-in-the-wall diners and camp out and have no particular place to be. I want to enjoy the journey and take lots of pictures and not have a schedule of events to follow. How is this not appealing? I’ve been on day trips and I’ve been on family vacations but those just aren't the same thing.

A couple of years ago, I went to Virginia’s Skyline Drive with my dad and that was one of the best trips I’ve had. We took back roads and side highways and saw interesting houses and crossed interesting bridges and we went through historical towns and snapped hundreds of pictures. We camped out two nights along the Drive and took our time enjoying the beautiful mountain vistas and ever-so-close wild life.

We didn’t have a lot of money to spend and our final destination was to visit his brother who lives in Gettysburg, PA (which I love exploring as well) but it was a great trip. Maybe having so little money forced us into having a REAL good time. After all, we cooked our meals on the campfire and swatted at mosquitoes and had real conversation.

That’s my idea of adventure and fun. An open road, little to no traffic until we hit some small town that was left by the wayside after the installation of Eisenhower’s interstate system of highways. Delicious food from unexpected places and burnt hotdogs from the campfire. Nothing we have to do but still finding lots to talk about and take pictures of. If only gas wasn’t so damn expensive..

Listen Sammi. Adventure doesn’t have to happen just on the road. Adventure lies everywhere and you just have to be open-minded enough to see it and daring enough to experience it. Don’t save up for fun times in the future, instead have fun now. Though I do hope that you do eventually find someone that loves the idea of a road trip as much as you.