Road trip

Itching for a road trip cross country to states I haven't been to. Louisiana, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, New York (shame on me), Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska. Or to places I've been often: west coast, mountains states, five state area surrounding MN. Doesn't matter where. Doesn't matter if there are no reservations. I could sleep in the car, eat at truck stops, watch truck drivers come in from a haul, and later depart myself. It's not so much in the destination, the old saying goes. You know the rest.

 I like to drive. I like behind the wheel. I like new roads, old roads, gravel roads, good roads. I like bars in towns I never heard of. I like quaint places to rest my head. But if the smell of cleaning fluids and cigarettes permeate, I will get up at three a.m. and drive on.

I like old school houses that are turned into something else. I hope the ghosts of students past come back to ring school bells, slam books, start fires in grates to warm the souls. I like warnings on streets: watch out for the ducks.

When there are feelings of being immobile, both physically and mentally, there is the yearning for walking out to the car without anything in hand and heading south. Or west. Going to the Cities isn't quite enough. I used to drive cross country regularly. And take odd roads. And stop at odd places. Now life seems to regular, too tethered, too ordinary. The older I get, the more chances I want to take. The opposite should be true, perhaps. Might scare my children, again, with irrational ways or impromptu leavings. It's the kids that are suppose to leave, they said when I packed up and moved to California, not the mom. They were older, most of them, out of college.  I assiduously went about loading up the car, deleting my life here, setting my life up there. When is too old too old. When is old enough not old enough. When does the list of things I gotta do deplete. Hopefully never.

There may be a road trip this summer. I could knock off the southern states easy. Or there just might be something that keeps me home.