Road Trip: Rear View Mirror

I’ve written about road trips a great deal the last few years. Getting in a car to go somewhere doesn’t seem to generate a great deal of excitement to some nowadays. Allow me now to get out my old man soap box to climb on so I can say back in my time going somewhere was usually some adventure. Folks once got in a car just to go on a Sunday afternoon drive. My generation drove our hometown from one end to other every weekend for years. It did not matter that the drive took no more than five minutes but it was something you just did back then. In our teen years, it sure seemed as if all of us were bursting at the seams to get our license to drive. It was a major deal. It no longer seems that way. We all have too many gadgets to get lost in these days. And some allow themselves to live off of generated fear to even consider living a normal life anymore.

I can recall that itch to drive when I wasn’t old enough to do so legally. In some way, learning to drive was intimidating. I remember driving backroads near where we lived just getting the feel of how a car operated. I could feel the power of the car just by having my foot on the gas pedal. I had to learn not to stomp on the brake pedal without giving others in the car a concussion. Then there was the challenge of a manual transmission. It became all about rhythm, a type of dance with the car on an asphalt dance floor. Deep down I just knew I could learn to drive but that this time learning, which seemed to last forever, was all that stood in my way from my own adventures behind the wheel.

At some point, I understood driving would just become part of what is done each day. I was right. It has. Of course, as with many things you imagine when you are still greener than grass and so wet behind your ears that it appears sweat has soaked your neck, I envisioned it all differently than what it became.

Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I just knew I would live forever in faded blue jeans and flannel shirts. I knew I would somehow end up with a truck or some type of Jeep or International Harvester truck. I envisioned myself standing with one foot on the ground and the other on the entry into the vehicle. Behind me a creek flowed in the background deep in some woods somewhere. I could see myself barreling through the North Georgia mountains with the sun always positioned in a place where I would not need sunglasses so I could always see things in their true colors. The eight track player would be playing Bob Seger or The Allman Brothers.

Life, of course, turned out differently. I am not sure if somehow I had been able to live out that dream from long ago if I would have enjoyed it. You just never know some things. Nowadays when we load up for a road trip I pretty well know the plan. We share driving duties often. That, at times, is a bit of a change for me, as I tend to like being behind the wheel. Either way, as we ride down the highway and the hum of the tires on the road turn into some quiet melody, I envision myself riding through the sunny mountains. I have my window rolled down and my left arm on the top of the door as the wind tickles the hair on my arm. I tilt my head slightly to the left, look in my rear view mirror, and, somehow, return to the here and now.

Playlist for Road Trip: Rear View Mirror

The Allman Brothers Band "Ramblin' Man"
Lee Roy Parnell "On The Road"
Beck "The Golden Age"
The Pretenders "Middle of the Road"
Rolling Stones "I'm Gonna Drive"
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band "Still The Same"
Alan Jackson "Drive (For Daddy Gene)"
Linda Ronstadt "Poor Poor Pitiful Me"
Eddie Rabbitt "Drivin' My Life Away"
The Doobie Brothers "Rockin' Down The Highway"
REM "Drive"
ZZ Top "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide"