The thought of a road trip across the country to visit family and friends and to see popular sites has fascinated me for a long time. I imagined doing this years ago with someone I was dating at that time who was a real outdoorsy, rugged, camper type. He was resourceful, adventurous, strong and fun. I pictured us in an RV traveling together, meeting up with friends and family, exploring gorgeous places and enjoying each other’s company along the way. And a dog. Maybe a dog was in this picture, too.
Fast forward to now and I still want to take this trip. But now I want to do it alone or maybe with just the dog. Well, not really alone, I want to invite friends and relatives to meet me in both wonderful and dull places or takes legs of the trip with me to keep me conversant, help me remember what I see and experience, and to keep me out of my own head a bit.
Why do the trip?
Because I can!
How many times have you promised yourself, “Someday I’ll take that amazing road trip and see all these people from my past I want to reconnect with?”
Well, I decided that day will be in September, 2018.
I found an old Atlas (remember those?), ripped out 2 pages of the entire USA, scotch-taped them together, added a 4” paper border and started plotting. I went through all my digital contacts (this was a good way to get rid of people I no longer am in touch with, to de-clutter electronically). I started making purple “x’s” on all the towns and cities where my people live. (This was another good exercise in the Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 friends and relatives weeding out process.)
Then I drew a pencil line from the purple “x” to the border, wrote names and places on the border and just sat back and soaked it all in. Ahhhh, this is kind of like FaceBook come to life. I get to actually GO to all these places I see my friends living in, but in Real Life. Remember that, real life?
While I’m away I want to write. I’m developing a theme to write about and discuss with people I meet across the country. It will become my writing project. Maybe it will be a short lived blog. Maybe a short novel? Maybe really long journal entries. Who knows? But I do know writing is a part of this trip. It’s therapeutic, it helps me remember my experiences, it’s good for my brain and it feels purposeful to me and my soul.
I’m giving myself two months for the adventure, but allowing that timeframe to change if needed. I am a yogi and this trip is really about living the yogi life and embracing each day, each moment as it appears on this journey.
And I do realize that each day in one’s everyday life is a journey and it’s a continual practice to try to live in the present. One doesn’t have to take a cross country road trip to do this, I’m just fortunate enough to have the opportunity to practice my yoga off the mat and on the open road for a few short months this fall.
