Springtime is here in the Pacific Northwest. Do you know how we know? The rain gets warmer! 😉
I’m itching to get out on the road again. I still have to complete the exhaust installation, and get my new OP gauge working correctly. But that just gets the car ready. I long to answer the call of the open road again… set off with just a companion, a road atlas, and a vague idea of a destination. That has to wait for the rain to stop however.
The above shot was taken on the Oregon Coast in October of 2004, as my father and I were headed south for the Mille Autunno.
Gorgeous!
The Jag E-type is truly one of the most beautiful autos ever created … And the Oregon coast is pretty, as coasts go too!
Back before GPS’ were all the rage, I used to pick a spot on the map, drive there, put the map away, and try to get home a different way … reminds me a lot of your road atlas comment. Of course I had a ’97 Miata, so I probably didn’t have to carry as many tools as you 😉
Thanks John!
Thanks for commenting zcline!
I am a gadget freak, and played with GPS navigation back in the 90s… but have given up on it as in honesty I find it VERY distracting from the act of navigation itself. Odd I know.
I love to travel with a road atlas, and just pick roads as I come to them. When Nick & I brought the car home from Colorado this is how we drove… just assume a general direction and pick roads based on how they look on the map, and confirm our choice once we arrived at the junction. Since traveling in the E-type is CERTAINLY more about the journey, this is definitely the way to go. 😉
Chuck, yer *not* alone! Pardon the length of this post, too….;)
I also am a gadgeteer, but I find GPS to be a *total* bore, and a killjoy.
I do as you do; get a good atlas, pick a general direction (always have been fairly good at orienteering…YEARS of backpacking with rolled-up topos, I guess!) and *enjoy the trip!*
Somewhere, I’ve got a poster of Joe Henry’s poem, that goes, in part,
“The Dream’s the thing, our holy wings, the journey just begun…”
To me, the way you and I drive *is* the holy part, NOT the destination.
My *favorite* words about ‘the journey;”
The thin horizon of a plan is almost clear
My friends and I have had a tough time
Bruising our brains hard up against change
All the old dogs and the magician
Now I see we’re in the boat in two by twos
Only the heart that we have for a tool we could use
And the very close quarters are hard to get used to
Love weighs the hull down with its weight
But the wood is tired and the wood is old
And well make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds well have missed the point
Thats where I need to go
No way construction of this tricky plan
Was built by other than a greater hand
With a love that passes all out understanding
Watching closely over the journey
Yeah but what it takes to cross the great divide
Seems more than all the courage I can muster up inside
Although we get to have some answers when we reach the other side
The prize is always worth the rocky ride
But the wood is tired and the wood is old
And well make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds well have missed the point
Thats where I need to go
Sometimes I ask to sneak a closer look
Skip to the final chapter of the book
And then maybe steer us clear from some of the pain it took
To get us where we are this far yeah
But the question drowns in its futility
And even I have got to laugh at me
No one gets to miss the storm of what will be
Just holding on for the ride
The wood is tired and the wood is old
Well make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds well have missed the point
Thats where I need to go
Indigo Girls, “The Wood Song”
Its probably a lot harder in OR, it doesn’t seem like quite as many roads here as there were in Jersey, which has a highway for every purpose!