take a road trip alone

so I’ve already asked for the time off at work. April 1st through 10th I’ll be driving up the coast…at this point alone. which I’m pretty stoked about. :)

There was the freeway: pure pleasure, especially in the ease of speed. There were wild dolphins, fried oysters and antebellum houses. There was spanish moss hanging from the trees in Savannah. There was champagne at a swanky rooftop bar with a fountain and fairy lights. There were bookstores and dream songs and driving in the dark. There was the first time I saw the Atlantic. There was the swimming-pool. There was the motel from hell and the motel from heaven, and the conference hotel inbetween. There were buttered grits. There were the best shrimp I’ve ever eaten, by the fishing boats. There were bridges. There were rivers and trailer parks and slums. There were men with navy blazers and brass buttons. There were men who opened the door for me. There was getting lost, and finding one’s way anyway. There was getting lost and asking for directions, and then finding one’s way with the help of others. There were Texan businessmen. There was a rental car agency clerk from Hungary I could boast of my extensive Hungarian vocabulary. There was pie at a diner. There was humming-bird cake. There was the country music channel. There was singing aloud in the car and finding out I know all the lyrics to ‘Desperado’. There was more music, music that swells and fills the car and the heart and the universe until the road and you and all is one.

And then it ends. It will always have been your first road trip and you don’t know if anything ever again will be this good.

the shortest epic road trip in the history of epic road trips, but I will make a two-day trip in a week and a half. Antebellum houses and a humming-bird are on my things-to-see wish list. I also hope to eat pie at a diner. And not hit things with the car. (Especially antebellum houses or humming-birds.)