Tripping

I had the pleasure of driving for ten hours from Massachusetts to Virginia the other day. The drive actually took 12 hours because my GPS wasn’t paying attention to traffic on the George Washington Bridge (construction) in NYC or the traffic jam around Washington DC (the roads around the capital are almost as congested as the halls of Congress).

In any event, while balancing coffee and trying to eat an Egg Mcmuffin at dusk I began to realize that hundreds of pairs of red eyes were looking right at me. It was mesmerizing. I had to watch them back or risk tail ending car in front of me. 

Turning my head left I saw hundreds of pairs of eyes, very white and very bright and very constant.

Turning my head right all I saw were brightly light advertisements for fuel, food and lodging.

Now I don’t know about you folks but 5-6 hours of that assault on my old eyes did not make for much comfort. I found it difficult to read the big green signs overhead. Reading the Exit signs was impossible.

So in addition to arthritic hands paining me from the constant grip on the wheel, a very sore bottom from sitting for 15 hours in one position, and the occasional stop to exercise my legs that were getting pretty tired of being in on position for all that time, I reflected on the decades when none of that bothered me. There are realities to aging. Our bodies, eventually, rebel against the idea that nothing ever changes.

This trip helped me make some late New Year’s resolutions.

1.   I am going to drive less at night and certainly not at all on long nighttime trips.

2.   I hate motels. I am going to give them another try.

3.   I am going to break long trips into manageable lengths.

4.   I am going to learn to depart earlier in the morning and stop for dinner and overnight at dusk on any trip.

5.   I am going to be better at getting books on tape to avoid the boredom.

6.   I am going to try to have my wife along more often to share the driving.

As I write this column I still face repeating the trip back home. But I am going to engage in my new resolutions on the return trip and lets see how that all works out.