Max: Teal Highways
For as long as I can remember, I have suffered from wanderlust. Almost all of my most cherished memories involve travel. When I am not traveling - which is most of the time - I find myself wishing I was traveling. Or reading about traveling. Or watching TV shows about traveling. Perhaps my favorite way to get someplace other than where I am is the road trip. Flying is great, but there is something about driving that makes those miles seem more real. Even when I was living in London, I loved hitting the road. Okay, there it was the railroad, but the same principle applies. And now we are coming up on Fall, which along with Spring is the best time to hit the road. The temperature makes being outside more pleasant. And watching as the world transforms to or from Winter and Summer makes those roadside views all the more worth the trip.
There is one road trip I have long been dreaming of taking. Every road trip I have taken has been to a particular destination. On those trips, road time was merely an enjoyable means to an end. They were scenic and sometimes adventurous. But they were also the most convenient route (ie, Interstates), and sometimes rushed through for the sake of what was on the other end of the road. That is not a complaint. I still treasure those trips. But at the same time, I have longed to hit the road with no destination in mind. Instead of Interstates I would ride the back roads. Instead of McChain restaurants, I would eat the local greasy spoon, or that shack out in the middle of nowhere that barbecues whatever happened to die that day. Free of any ends except motion itself, I would stop whenever I found something interesting enough to stop for, then hit the road again until I found the next thing worth stopping for.
If only I had the time/money/whatever...
Last week I was complaining to the Mrs. about how little I am able to travel, about how I long to just hit the road. Somewhere in that bitch session, a thought occurred. As much as I dream of hitting the road for days at a time, if I have no destination in mind, then there is no reason I can't take a one day road trip. Despite Jericho's protestations, the potential for adventure does not increase in direct proportion to one's distance from Saint Louis. There is something to be said for putting some serious miles between me and my home. But just because I can't get prime rib does not mean I won't enjoy a good cheeseburger.
That's a metaphor. Hitting the road for days at a time is prime rib. A day trip is a good cheeseburger. In case you didn't get what I was going for there.
With cheeseburgers in mind, we resolved to take a one day road trip. As yesterday was my birthday, it seemed like an ideal day. We decided to make the Great River Road our first one day, blue highway adventure. Laura, the dog (still smelling a bit from her recent introduction to skunks' natural defense mechanism) and I crossed the JB bridge, jumped off of 255 onto the River Road as soon as we could and we just drove. Having the dog with us was fun but limited the sort of places we could stop at. Next time she's getting dropped off with Laura's parents so that Laura and I can stop at more places. Regardless, it was great driving along roads we've never been on, seeing places we have never seen and generally getting away from the familiar. The scenery was captivating. We saw more corn than river along the River Road, but we also saw old barns, small towns and other such sights.
At one point, we were debating how to get back to MO. We didn't want to just turn around and drive the roads we just drove. I had heard from my parents that there are still ferries crossing the Mississippi not far from Saint Louis. We even managed to find one, but it did not seem to be running at the time. Eventually we found ourselves in Quincy, IL. We drove around there for a bit before dropping by Maid Rite, a restaurant recommended to us by one of Laura's friends. It turns out that it was a chain restaurant, but we didn't know it at the time. They specialize in loose meat sandwiches, something I have heard of but had never tried before. A couple of loose meats, some excellent fries and we were ready to start back towards home. We crossed back to MO and once again back-roaded it most of the way back home.
It was a fun day. I can't think of a better way to kick off my 35th year on this planet. And I think there is a lesson to be found there. Maybe the grand adventure are always going to be rare and mostly out of reach. If so, maybe it is time to worry less about prime rib and start helping myself to the cheeseburgers.
There is one road trip I have long been dreaming of taking. Every road trip I have taken has been to a particular destination. On those trips, road time was merely an enjoyable means to an end. They were scenic and sometimes adventurous. But they were also the most convenient route (ie, Interstates), and sometimes rushed through for the sake of what was on the other end of the road. That is not a complaint. I still treasure those trips. But at the same time, I have longed to hit the road with no destination in mind. Instead of Interstates I would ride the back roads. Instead of McChain restaurants, I would eat the local greasy spoon, or that shack out in the middle of nowhere that barbecues whatever happened to die that day. Free of any ends except motion itself, I would stop whenever I found something interesting enough to stop for, then hit the road again until I found the next thing worth stopping for.
If only I had the time/money/whatever...
Last week I was complaining to the Mrs. about how little I am able to travel, about how I long to just hit the road. Somewhere in that bitch session, a thought occurred. As much as I dream of hitting the road for days at a time, if I have no destination in mind, then there is no reason I can't take a one day road trip. Despite Jericho's protestations, the potential for adventure does not increase in direct proportion to one's distance from Saint Louis. There is something to be said for putting some serious miles between me and my home. But just because I can't get prime rib does not mean I won't enjoy a good cheeseburger.
That's a metaphor. Hitting the road for days at a time is prime rib. A day trip is a good cheeseburger. In case you didn't get what I was going for there.
With cheeseburgers in mind, we resolved to take a one day road trip. As yesterday was my birthday, it seemed like an ideal day. We decided to make the Great River Road our first one day, blue highway adventure. Laura, the dog (still smelling a bit from her recent introduction to skunks' natural defense mechanism) and I crossed the JB bridge, jumped off of 255 onto the River Road as soon as we could and we just drove. Having the dog with us was fun but limited the sort of places we could stop at. Next time she's getting dropped off with Laura's parents so that Laura and I can stop at more places. Regardless, it was great driving along roads we've never been on, seeing places we have never seen and generally getting away from the familiar. The scenery was captivating. We saw more corn than river along the River Road, but we also saw old barns, small towns and other such sights.
At one point, we were debating how to get back to MO. We didn't want to just turn around and drive the roads we just drove. I had heard from my parents that there are still ferries crossing the Mississippi not far from Saint Louis. We even managed to find one, but it did not seem to be running at the time. Eventually we found ourselves in Quincy, IL. We drove around there for a bit before dropping by Maid Rite, a restaurant recommended to us by one of Laura's friends. It turns out that it was a chain restaurant, but we didn't know it at the time. They specialize in loose meat sandwiches, something I have heard of but had never tried before. A couple of loose meats, some excellent fries and we were ready to start back towards home. We crossed back to MO and once again back-roaded it most of the way back home.
It was a fun day. I can't think of a better way to kick off my 35th year on this planet. And I think there is a lesson to be found there. Maybe the grand adventure are always going to be rare and mostly out of reach. If so, maybe it is time to worry less about prime rib and start helping myself to the cheeseburgers.
posted by Max Dobberstein at 8/31/2005 03:32:00 PM
5 Comments:
Aw right! Right here and right now, we are going to stop talking about how much Jericho hates STL and MO. Listen closely: I'm SOOO over it! I was young and I was angry and it was easy to be angry at the city. The city wouldn't fight back. I couldn't hurt the city's feelings.
It's over. I'm a much happier person now. I probably would have been pretty happy there if I was in the situation there that I'm now in here. :)
The Great River Road is actually a pretty cool deal. Sounds like you guys went south. My Mom and I often just took off on day trips with no destination. My Mom was and is a driver, she just wants to get in the car and go. Road trips with my Mom were always fun, if we were out just rolling or if she was carting me to college or back - we always loved the scenery and the culture. We went north on the GRR once. Very cool, Cahokia mounds park is worth the trip all by itself.
It never failed that during the warmer months, whenever we took one of those trips we would run into a local street fair in some county. If I remember right, that day we found at least two. Funnel cakes for everyone!
The JB bridge! I haven't thought about that bridge in forever. The JB bridge is a pretty bridge, it's simple but elegant. I wish it was closer to a city, that way it would be a landmark, more people would be aware of it. More thought should be put into major infrastructure projects like that. Bridges should be works of art, IMHO.
Steph and I are talking about buying a GPS here soon. On the trip to Idaho a few months back, a GPS would have been darned useful. That trip to Idaho would have been a great trip had we had more time to just do stuff and if we were doing anything else but going to a funneral.
My point here is that I really want to do more day trips like this myself. I need to find ways to be active that interest me, otherwise I will sit at home and watch Law & Order until I bleed out of my ears. The GPS will come in handy for another thing I want to do: Geocaching. The way I see it, we could map out a trip, hit some of the caches, get some hiking in for those off the trail caches, etc. Getting out of the house for just the (overpriced!) price of gas is a great idea.
Max, this is a great plan. You guys should do way more of these, blog the heck out of them. Can we get pictures? We have like 190MB of unused space on this site - more pictures would be a great thing!
Hey... buy us a digital camera that works (and is more than 1.3 megapixels) and I'd be happy to snap away! I had wished I brought a camera on our River Road trip (which was to the North-not South-BTW) but the only camera we have that works is analog and we can't afford to develop the film right now.
Okay. Fine. You no longer consider us denizen of The Lou worthy of your contempt.
Feel free to hook me GPS-wise. ^_^
Wait a friggen minute!
When did I become Daddy Warbucks? Didn't Laura just start working? Shouldn't you two be a litttle richer than you were a few weeks ago?
I said I want a GPS. I didn't say I would get one before the tax return came in. Maybe. If the car holds out and the house doesn't cave in.
Coming to be for money is like to going to a vampire for a blood donation!
Look, I just offered you the opportunity to hook me up. You don't have to take it if you aren't feeling ambitious enough to handle it.
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