Road to Wellville

I think I have found a solution to my slump.

It’s the same solution that I started using my freshman year of college, and have used every couple of years since—it’s a solo road trip.

Many eons ago when I was a wee little freshman at UA, I remember feeling under pressure and a bit trapped by the 4 teensy walls of my dorm room. Wondering how to abate this gnawing feeling of entrapment, a wonderful idea hit me like a bolt of lightening--I can go anywhere and do anything I please. I have a few bucks, I have gasoline, and I have a car.

On a rainy Saturday morning in early Spring, I headed out in my rust red 1984 Toyota Corolla. The open road lay before me. I had no plan, no reservations, and no idea where I was going. All I knew was that as I crossed over the boundaries of my town, my county, and then my state, all of my anxiety seemed to drain onto the cold wet road as I drove.

My the time I reached Chattanooga, Tennessee, I felt exhilarated and new. A sense of true independence was born in me that day. It’s not the destination that healed me, it was the freedom to escape and the ability to do it by myself.

Since my first solo road trip, many have followed. There was a week stay at a cabin in the middle of nowhere, a trip to a haunted bed and breakfast in Hannibal, Missouri, a trip to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington …among others. Each time I return, I return a new person.

So this is why I think I am due. I think a solo trip is a one-way ticket out of slumpville.

I wonder where the road will lead me next?