go on a road trip with no predetermined destination

Flying into Detroit tomorrow afternoon and driving my full-sized American-made gas-guzzling car North and West out of town.

Thursday night I am staying at a semi-historic hotel in Greenville, Michigan – the Winter Inn. They don’t have a web site and I understand that they are on the Nat’l Historic Register as being an old hotel: I hope that is a good thing.

Friday am on the back roads to Manistee where I will visit my favorite Uncle and two cousins. I feel like I have pissed away my life and that I don’t know any of my family and that the time is overdue for me to make up for that lost time.

When I was a kid, this Uncle always treated me well. He was kind. Now he is 90 and nearly blind. The road back to this Uncle has been too long and I am racked with guilt.

Sunday it is back to Detroit and a flight back to Baltimore. I plan on a backroad trip from Manistee to Detroit.

Long drives are metaphors for our lives: this one is long and I am alone.

I will be flying into Detroit in a couple weeks and then driving to Traverse City. So maybe this doesn’t really fit in this group as it is the route from Detroit to TC which is not predetermined. Unfortunately there aren’t any groups for, “Take a trip with set starting and ending points and no predetermined route in between”.

Just as well, I suppose as who’d sign up for a group like that?

Like many people, I am “from” Michigan. A lot of people are “from” Michigan for as physically beautiful the state is, the economics of the place sucks bigtime.

I am renting a full sized car for the trip as I intend to burn up all the fossel fuel I can before it is taxed beyond my means and strongly recommend that you do the same. Anyway, nothing is more “Michigan” than driving a Crown Vic over the cracked concrete of the Great Lakes State.

Will drive North and West out of Detroit and beyond on back roads. I plan on staying off of the Interstate as much as possible.

I will:
Listen to am radio.
Dine at local restaurants.
Speak to people I don’t know.
Drive slower than usual.
Smile.
Turn off my cell phone.

Tomorrow morning my wife and I are taking of for an all-day drive. Don’t know where we are going – just know we have to be back Monday night to get the kids dinner.

I think this qualifies!

It is so easy to see this goal as being something that takes a long time to achieve, as though it must be a cross-country trip. Not so. I make an effort almost every day to include some randomness into my life including my drive to work.

I like short weekend trips, even day trips, where my wife and i just take off with no destination and just drive.

Sure the gas is expensive, but life is short and one should always eat dessert first.

I am going to simultaneously attack at least three of my things shortly.

I am (1) planning a “Road Trip” whose route is undetermined, to (2) visit Iowa where I will take (3) more photos. Nifty, eh?

I am wondering if I can read James Joyce and Pablo Neruda while there and take credit for two more things? Maybe that is pushing it a little.

My cable system here in Reston, VA has an English language Japanese channel. Just finished watching a tv show about a Japanese photographer taking “funeral photos” of people living in a retirement home. Apparently “funeral photos” are a Japanese tradition and are taken once an individual reaches a certain age. All of the individuals were in this show, were quite alive and over 70 years of age. The photographer would spend an hour or so of time getting to know the individuals to get them relaxed and then click off 30 frames per person with a Hasselblad and Kodak 100 speed black and while film. I loved the film part. He later returned to the home with framed copies of the photos for each of the individuals. It was very moving and an example how each of us can effect the world positively with our art.

Maybe we need a new group: going good with photography

I followed my own advice and took an all-day drive this past Sunday in Delaware. It is a small state and the sort of place you can pretty much cover in a day of driving.

• through milton
• though pinetown
• on turkle pond road (where a sign warns you that there are endangerd squirrels present and urges caution)
• on coastal highway
• through houston

• a family taking photos of their kids in church clothes on the beach
• a guy sorting though the small stones at the high water line
• litter
• a woman and her dog
• a stiff breeze off of cool water
• a clear sky

It was a day well spent.

Almost everyone is talking about this in terms of a long trip, and I’d suggest that the allure exists in the randomness of the adventure rather than the duration.

Open up and consider a short trip: an afternoon drive or an over-nighter as a way to embrace the freedom. You might be astonished at the sense of giddy excitement you’ll experience when at a stop sign it occurs to you – it DOESN’T MATTER WHICH WAY I TURN.

Don’t let the idea of a long road trip stop you from experiencing the freedom and adventure of the unknown. And, do it soon.

I have wondered if this is something uniquely American in nature. Do, for instance, the people of Spain crave a good road trip? Or is it, as I suspect, an American thing based on our longing for adventure, freedom and the randomness?

I will be graduating from the University of Maryland with an MBA in May and plan on taking a sort-of-undetermined roadtrip to vist my brother in Iowa. Does this count? Does the route need to be undetermined or just the destination? Again, questions.

• Use the backroads and stay off the freeways
• Don’t be in a hurry.
• Don’t eat at anyplace you have ever heard of before. No chain joints – ever. Not even Starbucks.
• Listen to the local radio stations.
• Listen to the people you meet. I always learn something when I travel.
• Pack lightly. Doing laundry in a coin-op is good for the soul.
• Get up early. Everything is beautiful in the morning.

Good luck all.