Driving

I have been fortunate that my daughter travels well in the car. We have even driven an uneventful 16 hour trip to Florida. However, I still do not like to push my luck. Lately, we have been visiting friends and family and thanks to the interstate construction find ourselves stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. I take great measures to time my driving during naps so if I calculated a 2 1/2 hour drive, but turns into a 3 1/2 hours I am going to have a fussy baby.

My solution: the back roads. It can be a more direct route, but slower due to driving through towns or caught behind Sunday drivers or windy roads. However, it is the best way to see America.

The lands are covered in agriculture. Whether tobacco, corn, soy, or cattle it all keeps the country fed. Then there are the people. Teenage girls playing fat bat, men working on their trucks in the driveway, kids running through the yard holding streamers, an older couple rocking on the porch, a cook-out in the yard. Hundreds of towns all surviving and working together in community.

I have my map out (I do not have GPS because I am old-fashioned and maps make more sense to me). I pull out an old collection of CDs (again, I am an old soul) and sway to the rolling hills of Kentucky listening to Johnny Cash, Queen, Radiohead, Ben Folds. My daughter is sleeping, but I am alive soaking in all the sights of the different barns, old farm houses, run down towns, quant communities, church steeples, fenced goats, ballfields, fruit orchards, and drive-in movies. It is all there waiting to be seen. My gas mileage suffers. It adds 30 minutes to my drive, but if I can avoid feeling contained and herded I will gladly enjoy the scenic highways.