Truckin'

I was driving back from visiting M this morning, and I realized I was once again feeling like my old car-driving self. Back when I was living on the East Coast, I used to drive everywhere. Of course, when you live on the I-95 corridor, major cities that involve drives are still within easy reach (even if "easy" means 15 hours). Cities stack up on top of cities, at least if you're heading along a north-south axis. And I had people to see in all those places: mostly friends from home and college, with the occasional family member tossed in for good luck.

Then I moved west and I started slowing on the driving. After I stopped heading up to Seattle monthly, my travels slowed tremendously. I could carpool on hikes and climbs, so besides a yearly trip to Northern Cali for Christmas, I didn't drive very far. And then my Cali connection dried up, too. It didn't help that I took very poor care of my car during my Portland years. I wasn't that comfortable taking my un-maintained car on long trips for fear of catastrophic car failure.

So what's changed? First, I finally took my Ink Spot (so named because the mechanic called her a Crayola, so she needed a name befitting a crayon -- I find cars can really only be named by mechanics) in for repairs. I was leaving my Last Known Good Mechanic, and there's no telling how long it would take me to find another one I could trust. So, I put LKGM to work and got her all fixed up. Now I can feel comfortable driving Inky around again.

And then things are further apart here. In Portland, I didn't have to go far to see anyone I knew. I could shun an entire half of a city and still have friends to see and places to go. And there were many days that I did shun half of the city. At all times I shunned a good quarter of it. (There's nothing so important in the SW that I ever needed to go there.)

But here? You have to drive to get anywhere. Ikea? More than an hour away. The "discount" teacher-store? An hour away. Trader Joe's? Half an hour away. Cool, hip coastal towns? Forty-five minutes away. And I now have friends that live some distance away. I can't shun my far-away friends for my near-by friends because I have no near-by friends. (I'm sure that will change, it's already starting to, but I'm sure you get my drift.)

I never had to leave Portland, so I didn't. But now I have to leave home again. And it's kind of nice. I hate driving around town; I wish I could just get there already. But I do miss that time alone in the car on longer trips. The drive is part of the experience. I can listen to the radio and catch up on my music, plan my week, think about life. I have no responsibilities (except to not hit anyone or cause them to hit me). I can't do the dishes or laundry, I can't read a book, I can't get sucked into the TV. I can only drive.

How fitting that I'm re-bonding with my car here in Cali. Maybe I'll post one of my car-themed song lists one of these days.