Looking Forward To...

1. The packing being done because packing is high on my list of Least Favorite Things, and as such has not even been started as we speak.
2. Waking up to the reality, the outstanding knowledge that we are at the very tippy top of the beginning of a week ahead without any responsibilities except to relax and enjoy.  It's all ahead and none behind what will our adventure become?
3. Gassing up, banking up, then washing up our reliable ol' Honda with its clean oil and its new tires that will purr on the freeway as we spin away from our exit with the wind in our hair saying you're free, you're free , you're free, you're free, you're F-R-E-E-E-E-E-E!
4. Watching the familiar turn into the unfamiliar somewhere past Tremonton, the cities melting into bergs that morph into pastureland that transform into all-American amber waves of grain.
5. Breathing in the space all around us and letting it, allowing it to fill us up, undoing the tension and anxiety and worry with each new field, each new branch of sky, every hawk we spy releasing the pressure like a valve in a bike tire shhhhhhhhhhhh.
6. Which ushers in the singing, always in harmony, always joyfully to our dear friends and traveling companions the Indigo Girls and John, Paul, George, and Ringo; getting to know our other old friends in brand new ways--our pals Alanis, REM, and Adam's Counting Crows, hoping more wishing that they'll become the new regulars.
7. The rest stops with picnic tables and designated sections for dogs and maps of the area and questionable lighting and vending machines that have been semi-empty for far too long and the mirrors in the bathroom that don't really reflect much of anything.
8. The stretching of legs and the settling fatigue as the long, hot drive persists I'll take that any day of the week.
9. The slowing down as we exit the freeway and creep through each little town nestled on the two-lane highway, noticing our differences and similarities asking what would it be like to live in a place like this? What would it be like to be you, there on the corner, or the person who works in a place that looks like that? I'd love that little cottage and what a sweet yard but I think I'd hate to shop in that grocery store but isn't the backdrop stunning?
10. The ultimate thrill of seeing the name of our destination there it is! on the mileage sign and watching the number shrink as the miles roll away one after the other, hour after hour, until we're 45 minutes, half-an-hour, then just a few minutes away and we're so excited we can taste it and then we see it, quick don't you miss it--there it is! we're here!--the sign that announces, "Welcome, Mark and Cath! Welcome to your vacation!"

Comments

[Alice]

Have a wonderful, relaxing, fun time! Vacations are the best - my favorite thing about road trip is #9 - I always imagine what it would be like to live in different places as we pass through.

[Melissa]

Yaaaay for you two! Have a wonderful time. I can tell you love road trips like I do---they are so relaxing and traveling through those tiny little towns is one of my most favorite things to do--unfortunatley for me I live in one of those now with the grocery store that people shake their heads at :) we have milk and bread through :)I also love the fields of grain and the weathered old barns---it kinda sounds like you're traveling up near or past my beloved Teton Valley Idaho. Enjoy your trip---see you soon.
Melis

[Stefanie Hamilton]

Have a great time on your vacation! I used to drive from Nebraska to Orlando to visit my parents every year when I was in law school, and that's a 24 hour trip. I loved it!

[Becky]

"I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains, I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains...there's more than one answer to these questions, pointing me in a crooked line"...sorry...but you started it with the Indigo Girls. Hope you are having an AMAZING time! Thanks for getting that song stuck in my head! You know the German's have a word for that. Ohrwurm. Ear Worm. LOL! Gotta love the Germans. Not as good as "Schadenfreude", but pretty close.