Road trips

In Issue 12, we look at different types of creative adventure, including the roadtrip. Particularly, Hillary Webb of the Gold Fools tells us about their roadtrip from Halifax, Nova Scotia, across North America to exhibit at Renegade Craft Fairs. Today, we're going to look at the roadtrip in more detail. One of the great aspects of a roadtrip, for creative types, is that it provides both time with little to do but think, as well as constantly changing (or sometimes not so changing) backdrops. There may also be some adversity and some random encounters with people or creatures or roadside artifacts. 

When we drove from Calgary down to San Francisco two summers ago, one of my favorite memories is an early morning drive across the border from Nevada into California. We took a lonely little highway from Hawthorne, Nevada to the east side of Yosemite (#359 in Nevada, #167 in California); we didn't see another car along the entire stretch, infact the only other traffic we saw were the road crews who were just finishing resurfacing the Nevada stretch. The dark, virgin pavement and perfect yellow markings contrasted beautifully with the surprising green and purple and gold colours of this scrubland, and then we rounded a corner and the road turned suddenly straight, a wide basin opening before us and beyond that, Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada batholith towering up. While there were many more notable sights and events on that trip, that is the stretch of road that sticks in my mind the most.

photos by Janine Vangool

 

So what's your favourite roadtrip memory? Tell us in the comments.

Comments

[sar]

my favorite?

well, i could talk about how as child, my family would transverse the rocky mountains every winter break to visit my grandparents, how some of my first memories of roadtrippping include staring out at the stars while my mom sang john denver and the rest of the family slept.

i could talk about the first time i drove across texas (and drove. and drove. and drove.) and how a huge black storm was chasing us from the horizon, and when i glanced over, i saw the most perfect rainbow i've ever seen. and how at that moment, i felt like i knew more about america than i ever had before. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamsdr/3725196049)

i could talk about the time when some friends and i happened upon a frozen lake somewhere in southern utah, and how we played football, giggling and slipping while the ice groaned and creaked below.

i could talk about how songs never sound better than when they're coming from your car stereo, when the conversation has dimmed and you're left to the poetry of lyrics. and how in those moments, life is depth and light.

i could talk about the sun on my face, the feet on the dash, the trickiness of a mirage, the creative ways you learn to sit after being in the car too long. the perfect roadtrip snacks. (red vines and sunflower seeds, for the record.)

but even talking about all those snippets still doesn't adequately capture that feeling of elation and wonder when you're heading off into something, that unknown something. i could take a million pictures and write a million words, but i'll never be able to pin down that feeling... my favorite? every one of them.