Eyes Off The Road Now

I have always loved to drive. Time restrictions of career, though, had dictated that car trips meant arriving at my destination quickly. Blinded by such ambitions, I had never pondered if this travel paradigm would ever change.

Picture me now as I settled into retirement. When the pressures of work ended, I now wanted to discover this country mile by mile in the adventurous spirit of the Western pioneer.  I yearned to experience the sun as it rose with red bravado in the desert. It made perfect sense for me to reject the distractions of city life so I could become more cognizant of nature’s calling. It was time to travel on my terms now.

Turning to my family past, I considered a hard- working father. After a distinguished career as an Air Force Bombardier in World War II, he had returned home to raise a family with little time to see the country that he had fought courageously for. “Give me a light Vic”, I recall him often saying to my mother when he smoked his Winston’s on our once a year vacations from Ohio to Florida. As he casually flicked the ashes of his cigarette into the lighters not those occasions, it was always full speed ahead to our nightly motel destination.

As his tragic path to urban mindlessness haunts me today, I observe a red crag on a dusty road to the right  ahead. I will not allow the mechanistic calls of my GPS to deter me now and must trust my intuition to guide me where I wish to go. Realizing that there will be ample time to reach my intended destination later, I slowly veer toward this paragon of natural beauty. I have never felt so alive!