Road Trippin'

I hate driving.

And I'm making up for not having owned a car for 3 and a half years.  In 3 and a half weeks.

Ok, so let me re-phrase.  I'm really, really, REALLY tired of driving. And God did not see fit to bless me with enough padding to make long road trips comfortable...so I'm investigating getting a cushion for Betty. 

One would think that I would be accustomed to long road trips by now.  Growing up, we drove EVERYWHERE.  Repeated trips to Florida and back.  My earliest experiences there I missed half of, because my parents were smart enough to leave in the middle of the night, so my brother and I would sleep through most of it.  But apparently that was only half successful, considering I woke up every 30 minutes (Love you mom and dad!).  But beyond Florida, there were epic adventures like our two week road trip to Yellowstone and back in my parents Astro Van.  My brother refused to get out of the back seat, and would put up a blanket as a partition and would refuse to talk to anyone.  I was always cranky because I had to share a bed with my Grandma.  And where we visited every Presidential Library we passed, except one (it was pouring rain, and it was on the way home, and no one felt like it).  Sorry Mr. Grant. 

And then as I got older, the road trips continued.  After my first year of college, my parents suggested (forced) my brother and I to spend 8 days together in my Neon.  It was supposed to be a nice, relaxing vacation after a stressful year of college.  It was really more stress than all 4 years of college put together, and it resulted in my nearly throwing my brother out of the car.  While he was driving.  Did I mention that, though we're siblings, we don't actually like each other THAT much.  But I did buy him an awesome garish orange floppy hat.  So I suppose it was mildly successful. 

But now I've been doing these long distance trips by myself.  And even if my brother refused to talk to someone, there were still, you know, other people around.  Every road trip growing up, we would do somewhat cheesy things to pass the time.  Like playing the license plate game.  And by "game" I really mean, we kept track of all the different state plates we passed, in an attempt to collect all 50 states.  And though we came close a few times, I don't remember ever getting all 50 in one shot.  But I suppose there is still time.  And we'd keep a road trip journal, and record any time we'd pass anything special.  Like a cow crossing sign.

So what does one do for 8 hours by yourself...while you're driving?  I, fortunately, had a last minute suggestion of downloading episodes of This American Life.  So I did, and somehow, that led me to find old radio episodes of Dragnet.  And if you haven't listened to one yet, you definitely should.  I've never really been a big fan of talk radio, but my opinion has definitely changed.  It helps pass the time.  And it can be more entertaining that just listening to music all the time.  I was even able to figure out that Harry Morgan (Colonel Potter for all you M*A*S*H fans) is not only a character in the old TV episodes of Dragnet, he also appeared on the radio show.

Yes, I am fully aware of my nerdiness.

And even though I'm not really raring to go for another 16 hours solo in my car...I actually think I could get pretty good at this road trip thing.   I mean, I'd actually spent more hours in one day biking than I had driving a car, until recently.  Granted, my road trip didn't involve tears like my bike ride did.  But you try riding a bike for 8 hours pain free. 

Anyway you look at it, and whether I want to or not, it seems that I'm going to have plenty of opportunity to practice.