One thing I noticed with a smile after a few days on the road: when you’re out there driving in a convertible, with the top down, bikers — including the huge, burly guys on Harleys — tend to give you a little wave, thumbs-up, or peace sign as you pass them by. It got me thinking, too: what is this? And I realized it also gave me a little bit of an answer to why I liked being out there so much, even as I was driving 400+ miles each day…
I think being out there in a convertible, with the top down, stopping every 30-40 minutes (or even more often) to look at whatever you happen upon by the side of the road, is qualitatively different from most car trips. Most car trips I’ve been on have been all about getting there: whether you’re driving a few blocks to the grocery store or halfway across the country to visit relatives, it’s about getting to where you’re going…and even when it’s partly about seeing things along the way, they’re scenery, they’re things you see out beyond the glass-domed top of your car, they’re things that sometimes come across as more of a TV screen than reality.
And while I’m not pretending for a moment that being in a convertible is the same thing as being out there on a bike (whether motorized or not), with the entire world around you every inch, it’s definitely a step closer than being in a traditional car. I saw so many people out there on my trip in luxury cars, SUVs, enormous RVs (some with enormous view windows, even) that looked like they were…watching a real-time video feed of what it’s like to drive across country, instead of being out there in it. They completely passed by the little things I found at the side of the road — the “most beautiful phone in America”, the shoe tree, the graffiti made out of colored stones on the side of the railroad, the aqueduct carrying billions of gallons of water through the desert… They didn’t need to wear sunscreen, or put on a hat, or worry about getting stung by a bee, or feel the overwhelming heat around them; they just closed the door, set the climate-control system to 72, put on music, and let five hundred miles pass them by.
Nor am I criticizing them — everybody’s got their own way of doing it, and some people may want to get there this way, to see things more like a movie, or to just get there and get it over with. More power to them. But when I wonder about why driving four hundred miles a day could be such an experience, so much fun, and let me experience and see so much, I really do think that being out in the world, feeling it all around you, and stopping to see all those random little things by the side of the road — they make all the difference in the world. Be there. Experience it. Let it surround you. This is how you make yourself part of it, and make it part of you…
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