9-18-08

Taking a road trip doesn’t mean driving to Wal-Mart

When I was around the age of five, my father would pack up his metalflake blue Honda 750 with the necessary gear to keep a grown man and his son content for the day and we would hit the road.
These day trips were great. My dad would sit me on the seat between him and the gas tank. I held on to the middle of the buck horn handle bars while my dad worked the gas and clutch at the end of the bars. When we got to an intersection he would ask, “Which way?” After a second or two of some serious five year old thinking, I would answer, “THAT WAY!”
The day was ours. At every intersection he would ask the question. I was controlling our destiny. No one knew where we were and we didn’t know what was around the next corner. We were two men on a serious road trip!
I am amazed at how many people have not traveled beyond their state line. Not just here in North Carolina, but everywhere that I have lived. There is always a hand full of people that have never enjoyed the excitement of being in a strange place and not knowing a soul. I am not talking about going to Wal-Mart in the next town. I am talking about packing up the car and driving for a few days to somewhere different.
In my opinion, the adventure of a trip is the time between leaving your house and reaching your destination—if there is a destination. I haven’t done a lot of traveling in my short lifetime but the trips that I have done have got some great stories attached to them.
At the ripe old age of twenty-four, I knew everything there was to know about living. There were a few friends of mine that decided to move to Arizona. Wow. Talk about throwing caution into the wind. They did it. They “packed their trash” and headed out west. I couldn’t be left out. A few months after they left, I got the itch. A ’78 Cadillac Coupe DeVille was purchased, trash packed, a kiss good bye to my mother and I was off.
It took me two and a half days to get to Mesa, Arizona. Between Maryland and Arizona, a lifetime of adventure was had.
I ate some of the best roadside diner food and bought some of the best stickers and magnets shaped into the state that I just crossed.
I sat on the hood of my Caddy outside of New Mexico and ate cheeseburgers while watching an incredible sunset. I saw the dirtiest hotel I had ever seen but slept there anyway because “there isn’t another hotel for another 212 miles.” You might also want to fill up while you are here” Can you say “Norman Bates?”
A book could be written about my trip to and from Arizona.
I have lived in Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona and Ohio, and now North Carolina. I have traveled across the country four times and countless times between Florida and New Hampshire.
I am not the poster child for travel, however. A trip to Tijuana is the furthest I have traveled outside of the country, and I have a great sombrero to show for it. This was some time ago but I do remember sitting in my parents green ’76 Ford van while we waited in a massive line to cross the U.S.A. / Mexico border. There were people selling everything from hats and ponchos to Coca-Cola and fireworks. I am sure there was a lot more to be bought on that roadside but I was only seven at the time. I will never forget it.
Don’t get me wrong. Wanting to be at home is a natural feeling. We all love our home and there is nothing like it. Home is safe.
However, there is a world around us with tons and tons of adventure, new things to see and all kinds of culture to take in. Your town is your home and I know that is where it is comfortable to be. This country is your home also and it should be traveled so it too will feel comfortable.
Times are tough right now for all of us. Gas is high and money is tight. Sometimes it actually takes some savings and planning just to get to the Wal-Mart up the street.
With that said, if the opportunity arrives, take that trip. It doesn’t have to be across the country or up the Eastern Sea Board. Simply find a destination close by that might require a night’s stay in a hotel. Pack up the Family Truckster and go.
Drive somewhere and come back a different route. The end story will be worth it in the end, if not now, perhaps later when someone says, “Have you ever been to ____” and you can say, “Yes, and let me tell you about what happened on our way there.”
Bryan Pinkey can be reached in the middle of nowhere or at bpinkey@nccox.com.