pauses&clicks

I absolutely dread solo road trips.

I am completely my parents’ daughter in that I know how to fret, and I fret really well.  I think about the possibility of flat tires, of my car skidding out in the rain, of snow in the forecast.  I worry that I’ll lock my keys in the car when I stop for gas.  Stupid stuff.

And then there’s the problem of what to do by myself for six hours.  I listen to music. I sing. I pray.  I usually end up carrying on a running dialog with myself and that’s just kind of strange.

I have a close friend who talks to dead presidents on her solo road trips.  She tells them what the world is like today.  Now that’s even stranger!

I drove from Shreveport to Oklahoma City today.  As always, it was a really quick trip. I had to laugh at myself for fretting.  Even the pouring rain for the first half of the trip wasn’t bad. Besides, I’m intrigued with small Texas towns and always enjoy driving through them.

The most amazing thing about my journey was the color. I expected beautiful fall color in Ohio in October and was hard pressed to find it, so it was really wonderful to discover it on a gray, rainy December morning in Texas.  The roads were lined with trees saturated in russets, golds and oranges.  It was as if, in the midst of draught, they simply could not yet give up their leaves.  Perhaps this weekend’s soaking rain, so needed, will finally allow them to fall.

In a world full of too much stimulation and too much on the calendar, six hours alone in the car can be a very good thing.

In the future I need to remember that solo road trips are not cause for worry and are so worth the people I love who are at the other end.