At the beginning of my drive west, I traveled through some mountains in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I found a website called “Flattest Route” which will show you the flattest route between any two cities. I used that. I felt good about the road ahead. Then I hit construction. Then a detour. I got off on some very steep, very curvy mountain roads. Many had no shoulder and the drop, should one make a mistake seemed like it would have been fatal. I came across lots and lots of road construction and quite a few roads in ill-repair. Potholes abound. That set the tone for the next few days of driving.
When I’d start up a hill, and could not see what was on the other side, I wondered if there would be a big drop, or would the road flatten out? Would it wind and curve downward like a roller coaster? Would my heavy van even make it up the steep incline? Many of the roads were narrow, one lane in each direction and some would barely allow two cars going in opposite directions to pass each other. Would I get to the top to find a car from the other direction coming right at me?
It didn’t take long for me to start thinking of “the road I’m on” as a metaphor for life. Where am I going? Will I make it up the next hill? Will I fall off the edge into the abyss? Life can indeed be scary.
As my first month on the road comes to an end, the roads have indeed flattened out some. I’ve had my van tuned up and some work done on the suspension, so it is driving much better, and I’m getting much more used to all the bumps in the road. My van weighs 4 tons. It takes a bit to get it moving and quite a bit to get it to stop. I’ve learned that I cannot do 70 mph (as was the speed limit on most of I-90, until I got to South Dakota where it changed to 80!) I am the proverbial old man, in the slow lane, doing 10 to 20 mph below the speed limit. And I don’t care. I’m going at a pace that is comfortable for me. I don’t drive more than 4 hours a day and often I stop after 2 or 3 hours on the road. What’s the rush? I’ve got nowhere I have to be today. And I have no intention of driving myself insane (see how I snuck that driving metaphor in?) by rushing from place to place.
Life on the road is quite different than I’d fantasized about. It can be hard. It can feel lonely at times. But I’m feeling connected to the earth. I’m meeting people, sharing stories, or sometimes just smiling and saying hello to a stranger. I won’t ever see most of them again, but it doesn’t matter. Our roads have crossed. We stopped for a minute and acknowledged one another. We connected, however briefly. And that is making the journey an experience beyond my wildest dreams.