Better Than A Road Trip?

Is there anything better than a road trip?  That shared experience with family, with lover, with best of buddies? The nature of the road: better than any metaphor: it is the shared journey; the confined space with no place to go. Simply 'be' and talk. With luck the intermittent loss of decent phone connection. Nothing can beat it.

Except sometimes the early morning solo road trip. The trip that is a mission. Music, documents, water all loaded. To go and close the sale. To go and see an ailing relative. To go and reassure a son or daughter at college that you are always there for them.

As headlights sweep the road and the clock ticks past 0435 and the sound switches between the still late night DJ and your play-list and occasional periods of silence as you reflect: you move through woodland and motorway and the inter-connecting side roads. 

The swift stop for trucker's coffee. The rise of the sun. The extended handover to the chirpy breakfast show DJ, the switch to the louder tracks on your play-list. The mild banter at the filling station. As caffeine kicks, dawn rises and the SatNav reports proximity, the clarity of what needs to be done is fully realised.

The early morning solo road trip. Take one soon.