road trippin’

Posted by Cobi on Monday June 28, 2010 at 06:00 AM
Comments (2)

"School's out - lets hit the road!" ~ what great words!!

I'm one of those crazy fools who loves road trips.

And I even loved them before Thelma & Louise - one of my favourite movies (and not because I look like Thelma).

Why do I (and thousands like me) love road trips?

Here are 8 good reasons....

1. There's something about the preparation for a road trip I love. It brings out the Girl Scout in me. I love packing the car - making sure we have snacks, drinks, sunglasses, maps, tunes, pillows, and that feeling when we finally drive out of the driveway - "did you remember to shut the garage door?- Yeehah! Lets blow this Popsicle stand!"

2. Road trips are a wonderful excuse to do nothing. For hours. When else does a working mom get to sit on her ___ for hours? Strapped in no less!! Unable to do anything for anyone, short of handing out the odd piece of licorice or a Kleenex. Absolute heaven.

3. Speaking of which - Licorice. Licorice is another reason I love road trips.

4. And how about the 'talk time' - I guess we can't exactly say 'face time' (that could be dangerous) - but 'talk time' with hubby or girlfriend or whomever I'm encapsulated with. It's pretty nice to actually be able to have a conversation longer than a minute that isn't interrupted by the phone, blackberry, kids or whatever. Sometimes I even save up topics that I want to talk to Bob about in the car. Is that pathetic? No, I think that's just life in the fast lane.

5. Looking at maps. I seldom take the time to look at maps but I enjoy them when I do. My natural sense of geography is somewhat challenged and so my family is used to hearing me call out with utter shock and amazement "so that's where that is!" - even with a map of Ontario on my lap. Of course Bob and I have our moments with 'directions', as any well-married couple has. In fact, we had the worst fight of our marriage on a road trip through Scotland. But that's old news. The only reason we argue still is because he still doesn't understand how incredibly great I am at navigation (hey - it's my blog).

6. Time to think. Driving by other people's lives and homes, gives me pause to think about my own. I enjoy the voyeurism of seeing how others live and imagining what it would be like to live in situations other than my own. I also love to see how others have lived in the past and wonder about the circumstances that made them move on.

7. There's something romantic about road trips. Waiting in line at the airport just isn't the same. Hittin' the wide open road, without a care in the world, now that's livin' (ok, maybe I am sounding a bit like Thelma...). I guess we all remember the road trips we took as kids and how exciting they were - at least for the first half hour. We certainly do all seem to remember them!

8. Timmy stops. The more Timmy tea... the more Timmy stops... We have lots and lots of Timmy stops.

If you can't get out on a road trip yourself this summer, at least watch one of the many great road trip movies.

Here's a list of favourites:

Little Miss Sunshine

It Happened One Night

The Darjeeling Limited

Rain Man

Sideways

Into the Wild

The Motorcycle Diaries

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

And of course...