Upheld In Fast Travel

I love my writers group, the Scribettes.  We do fun things like writing from prompts when we get together. Sometimes it is just gobble-de-gook. Sometimes, though, some really good stuff comes out of it.

Last time we met, Gena, one of our leaders, read a story from author Eudora Welty’s autobiography. This lady and her dad took a road trip in their automobile in the early 1920s. She described old America and passing through small towns and even slowing down on Main Street to 20 mph and being able to see and observe what was happening on both sides of the road.

Aside from my imagination running to a little southwestern town where a cartoon racecar ended up (and hearing in my mind, my grandson’s squeals for “McQueen! McQueen!”) all I could think about was contrast.

On this 4^th of July week, I can imagine old Main Street America, red, white and blue streamers hanging from a gazebo in the middle of the town park. Fashionably dressed people would have been picnicking, and a band playing marches from the gazebo. I’ll bet boys were directing their large wheels down the street, too, whatever those were called.

Contrast that slow, leisurely trip with suitcases strapped on running boards, with my SUV where the suitcases and plenty of other paraphernalia are loaded into the back of the rig. I might have a picnic cooler back there with my paddles, life jacket, other stuff and my kayak on the top of my car.

I whiz along the freeway at 80 mph to visit either my daughter in Montana, or my son in western Washington. Sometimes I nearly drive off the road. One thing hasn’t changed in a century—the compulsion to gawk on both sides of the road. So much to see and it zooms by fast.

Eudora noticed towns and the people in them. She saw what they were doing. I don’t have time or opportunity to do that. It’s hard when the freeway bypasses the town and 80 mph isn’t really conducive to checking out backyards anyway.

Still, I notice the different shades in rivers from gun metal to powder blue to green depending on if the sun is out or not. Or if I am driving in the mountains, the shadows change with the time of day. Trees and foliage change from place to place. If I am driving in the desert, then the sensation is that it goes on forever.

Both terrains are beautiful, though I admit the desert can be boring. Unless—there are dark, menacing thunderclouds and sheets of rain that obliterates the road. Big trucks don’t help much as they create mists and roostertails that one must dodge. Ok, maybe not at 80 mph at this point.

At any rate, this 4^th of July, slow down and spend time with family and friends. Even though we live in the 80 mph freeway these days, we do have a rich history in this country to celebrate.  We live in a beautiful land, graced by God. Don’t just speed through, take time to notice.

HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY!