Finding time to hit the road

ROSLYN RYAN

Here’s a question for you: When was the last time you went for a drive?

Has it been a while?

A quick clarification: I’m not talking here about your daily commute to work, or your weekly pilgrimage to the store for groceries, or even your last trip out of town. I’m asking, more specifically, about the last time you walked out of your house, got in the car with no destination in mind, and just drove. In the interest of full disclosure I must note that it’s been a while for me too. In fact, if I’m thinking back to the last time I found myself out on the roads just for the sheer joy of driving—radio on, window down, no particular destination in mind—the distance would best be measured in years.

I doubt that I’m alone on this. For so many of us, the pace and pressures of life these days necessitate that time behind the wheel must be productive. When we drive, most of us are definitely going somewhere, preferably as quickly and efficiently as possible, with a focus on getting things accomplished. Some of us take this a step further and somehow manage to return phone calls (handsfree, hopefully) and have “meetings” en route from one place to another, though I’ve never quite gotten the hang of that. Maybe part of the reason many of us don’t think to “go for a drive” is that we often take our own surroundings somewhat for granted. Over the course of my driving life I’ve had the very good fortune to have lived in a few places where going “out for a drive” meant taking in some of the most beautiful and inspiring scenery one could imagine. During a few months spent in New Mexico there were long, late-afternoon drives through the desert, where the setting sun reflecting off the rock formations created a glow and a color palette that is hard to describe to this day.

I also lived in Maine, for a time, a state that rewards visitors with

Please see RYAN, Page 7