born to drive

Driven.  This describes me very well and in many ways.  Right now, however, I'm referring to my  love of driving.  I especially like the long distance drives I have taken over the years.  I've taken the family on cross country trips for vacations, for college tours and just for fun.  I have driven many miles to attend weddings, reunions and spur of the moment activities.  This past year I drove across the country from Florida to California and back (twice!) and traveled from southern California to British Columbia and back again.  I've driven on interstates and rural roads.  I've traveled on state highways that were at one time grand highways running coast to coast before being replaced by newer, grander highways. My atlas has the markings of all the road trips I've taken this year carefully recorded in highlighter with each leg of the trip marked in a different color so I can see how far I drove each day.  I've kept the car "greased and oiled", as my Dad would say, and that, plus some other work, has kept the car in good running order.  I've run over plenty of road trash on my journeys and amazingly come through the experiences in one piece.  I've done a lot of sightseeing along the way and visited with friends and family.  But mostly I just like the drive.  I can listen to music with the volume pumped up and I can choose what I want to hear.  Sometimes I play Christmas music in the summer.  Sometimes it's gospel music that draws my attention.  Sometimes it's a local talk show with a call-in swap meet that I find interesting.  And then there are the "dead spots" where there is nothing--I mean NOTHING-- coming over the air waves.  Actually, these are the good times.  It's quiet.  No sound.  Just me and my thoughts.  Just me and my thoughts and my car.  Going somewhere.  Peace.  Exhilaration.  Freedom.  Seeing.  Experiencing.  Just driving around.  Just driving.