The Call of the Open Road

Driving, to me, is one of the most euphoric experiences in life. But I’m not just talking about your daily chugging around town. I’m talking about hitting the open road, really letting loose and feeling your tires spin under your feet. A few years back, as a teenager, I remember taking off for a weekend once, just me and my Honda, driving up to Oregon to visit a friend. It was all on a whim, and I didn’t even have a map, but I remember having this juvinile idea that I could just go.

I had about $200, with no real plans for anything else, and off I went. It was apparent that I didn’t know where I was going, especially when I arrived in California. Now, leaving Vegas, I’d planned to head up the Interstate through California, along the coast. (This was before I actually knew the California highways, you understand.) I made the mistake of heading for, not San Fernando, but San Bernadino. It wasn’t until I actually had driven an hour in unfamiliar roads that I realized my mistake, and so I turned around, and had to make up for time.

The thing was, though, that because I didn’t really have any time constraints, it didn’t really affect me as much as it normally would. I just counted it as part of the drive, and loved it. I was seeing new sights, travelling new roads, and learning new things. I slept in the car, not having enough money for a hotel, and actually not old enough to rent a room for the night by myself. (I was 17 at the time.)

I ate at fast food restaraunts, especially In-N-Out™, and just kept on driving. Now, as I look at it, it was one of my more reckless stages in life, but before, it was really an exciting adventure. I had nothing holding me down, and I was just one with my vehicle, and one with the road.

A few years later, I purchased a Honda CBR 600, (a bullet bike), and it was those same euphoric feelings, but in a different way. With no windows or frame around me, I felt a little vulnerable, but free. It was a feeling of absolute freedom, as the flick of my wrist would ignite my engine, and send me speeding down the road.

Several times, I would take a trip to another town, just so I could really feel the wind whipping at my jacket, the headphones in my helmet blasting tunes as I put road behind me. It was all the same feelings of discovery all over again.

Now, a few years older and hopefully a little bit wiser, I nevertheless still have many of those feelings. I feel the longing to just drive, to not have a destination or a goal in mind, and just make the journey my goal. But now I have responsibilities, and so I must fulfill them before I can again pursue that whimsical dream.

But the road is still calling. And someday, maybe not soon, but someday, I’m going to answer.

- Kyle

~ by Karratti on Monday, 5 November, 2007.