The Great American Road Trip

What is it that sparks a road trip wanderlust in some of us? I had my first coast-to-coast road trip when I was only five years old. That summer my family and I drove all the way out west in a '67 Plymouth Barracuda. The back seat folded down to create a space where my sister and I could lay down and stare up at the stars through the expansive back window. I can still remember so many things from that trip and the myriads of others that I went on as a child. How many kids can say they've stood in four states at the same time, watched a bear climb into the family car, or fed chipmunks on a chilly mountain morning somewhere on the outskirts of Durango, CO? These road trips and all of the experiences I had on them went a long way to shaping the person that I am today. It gave me perspectives on our country, it's people, and its places that I will forever be thankful for. My parents were smart enough to know that some of life's best lessons are not learned in the classroom, which is ironic considering that both of them were teachers. In today's age of brief vacations and relatively cheap airfares, it appears as if the traditional American road trip is a bit of a lost art form. I will forever sing the praises of an open car window and an open highway over the fish-bowl window of a jet plane at thousands of feet in the air. Even though most people scoff at the fact that my vacations involve left-arm tans and hours upon hours of windshield time, I know that nothing compares to the amazing feeling of leaving it all behind and hitting the open road.