It’s summer and the open road is alluring. I’m not going to be answering its call, but the idea of booking it for a few days has me daydreaming. The last month has involved a lot of mentions of places we should be road tripping to. Talk of music festivals in Texas, varying far off beaches and places offering down-home style cooking in remote Southern towns… no one has any interest in spending their summer in the midwest, not that I blame them. This ‘anywhere but here’ mentality seems to be passed back and forth whenever the weather’s nice.
While I know we won’t actually be going, it doesn’t keep us from the planning; the mix CD’s that need to be made, edible supplies coolers should be loaded with… how many pairs of underwear does a girl really need, anyway? Our destination is of secondary importance, if that. The point is getting in the car and going somewhere with the unspoken hope that something worth telling our friends about will happen–it always does, right? That is the nature of the road trip according to every movie I’ve seen. I’m not looking for a weekend comparable to The Hangover, just some funky roadside attractions and scenery we hop out of the car to take pictures in front of. Sounds like the most stereotypical summer road trip movie ever, right? How is it something utterly forgettable on screen transforms into the unforgettable with a handful of Polaroids to remind us that we did it? But like I said, we never go on these expeditions. There’s not enough money or time or interest and we wind up staying home.
I want to feel the breeze on the soles of my feet while they hang out the window. I want to use the cruise control on my car in the hopes I can avoid any more sweet $200 speeding tickets. I’ve been telling myself we aren’t going anywhere, but I have a feeling I’ll cave before the last of the warm weather is gone. One of these weekends maybe I’ll leave my laptop at home and drive into the desert with just a friend and a stack of hastily burned CD’s. I’m restless and impatient for the end of 2010, for big adventures I’ve been carefully saving for.