ROADTRIP

It's summer. Summer always makes me want to get in a car and just GO. There is really nothing better than having some decent chunk of time, a tank of gas and a map, and no agenda. Just start driving. ROADTRIP!

I am, I should make clear, NOT talking about roadtrips with children. Or at least roadtrips with my particular children. They start out to be good-intentioned adventures and quickly degrade into backseat bickering, fast-food spillage, a desperate hunt for a clean bathroom because one of them has to GO RIGHT NOW, and hauling them around to places that at least one of them absolutely hates. Those sorts of roadtrips are exhausting affairs and must be worked up to every few years.

No, the best kind of roadtrip is taken with just two: two great friends or one harmonious couple. A convertible is the preferred vehicle to have, but not totally necessary. There is just something fabulous about saying "Where do you want to go?" and answering "I HAVE NO IDEA!" and giggling as you hit the interstate. You see the country from a whole different perspective when you are not traveling for any purpose other than to maybe see some new stuff and spend some time together. Your eyes open up to the small details, and the pressures of daily life fade away. You pull over and find somewhere to eat when you are hungry, find a motel to sleep at when you are tired. If some weird little shop looks cool you can check it out, you can even pull over and watch some local Little Leaguers battle it out in some tiny town. You can dip your toes in a clear cool river, watch a movie in some big city you've never been in before, and eat some really fabulous triple-berry pie in a diner run by the Amish. You can just keep riding down the road, listening to music, and talk and talk.

If you have never been on a proper roadtrip, I hope that you do sometime. It's pretty damn cool.