As someone who didn’t get their license until later on in life, I never really understood or enjoyed long road trips when I was younger.
As the middle child, I vividly recall squishing into the backseat of our cars growing up. The room only decreased as we got older, and I only remember actually having space when we got a minivan.
I don’t generally recall what happened when we were driving, or where we went. I remember most of them were spent concentrating on whatever activity I had brought to keep myself entertained, or singing at the top of our lungs to whatever tape or CD we had in the stereo.
Robynne Henry The Henry Hype
When my friends started driving, I enjoyed hitting the road with them. There wasn’t any arguing about space, I didn’t get yelled at for being a pain, and we all generally agreed on what music to play.
I actually avoided long road trips when I got my license because I wasn’t sure I would enjoy them. I hadn’t driven for long periods of time, and wasn’t a fan of being behind the wheel for more than a few hours.
That all changed when I got offered the job at the Nouvelle and faced the prospect of driving 30-plus hours across Canada. Luckily, my friend was able to join me and we set off on our cross-country drive.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the trip. We listened to a ton of music, a bunch of podcasts, and even finished a couple of audiobooks. We saw large portions of Canada, and made stops at random tourist attractions that we never heard of.
Since we drove around eight hours a day, not many trips seem that far to me anymore.
On my weekends off, I normally make the trip to Saskatoon to visit my best friend, and it seems to be a blink before I’m pulling into her driveway. I queue-up my favourite podcast, the Last Podcast on the Left, add some playlists to tide me over and hit the road.
I think I regret putting off my license for as long as I did because I would have realized I enjoyed road trips a lot faster and could have gone on more than I have. I know I still have tons of time to make plans, but I just wish I had done more already.
Part of me also wishes my family and I had gone on more when I was growing up, even though most of the memories I have evolved around being squished in the backseat.
