I have yet to encounter anyone who doesn’t like a good old-fashioned road trip. That’s the truly amazing thing about them: there are so many different kinds of vacations and people tend to differ in opinion about all of them — whether it’s better to go to the beach or the forest or the mountains — but one thing we can always seem to agree on is that the best way to get anywhere is to load up a car with your favourite people, some good music and junk food and just hit the road.
It’s amazing that people still chose to drive places when they could just as easily fly, but there is something so much more interesting about driving through the Rocky Mountains for six hours than just flying over them in one. There is something alluring about forging your own path and enjoying the ride. Road trips make every vacation so much more worthwhile because the journey is just as important as the destination, if not more.
English poetry classes teach about the pastoral ideal, about the idea of getting away from it all and returning to the outdoors, and I think that the artistic obsession with road trips is an extension of this. Books such as Kerouac’s On The Road romanticize the idea of just getting up and going, allowing the open road to take you away from everyday life. Kerouac’s characters are driven to escape from their mundane lives in search of something more exciting and fulfilling, and the journey to get to this imagined destination is an integral part of the story.
Movies like Into the Wild and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty are able to capture our attention with characters who strive to find that serenity that comes with forging amazing paths for themselves. On top of it all, there is always such a huge focus on the scenery, the amazing breathtaking views that you can find if you just drive an hour or two out of town.
We all want an escape from the everyday parts of our lives, and not everyone can afford to hop on a plane and go away for months at a time, or just move and start all over. Road trips are accessible: you can make a trip down the coast for only a weekend, and it can be something exciting if you make it about the trip itself versus the arrival at your destination.
Always make time for stops at the side of the road for goat farms and pie shops, lakes and deer herds; for every eccentric thing that catches your interest, you should pull over for. Road trips are a lot like art, we search out meaning from them, we use them as an escape or as a way to find a story, be it our own or imagined.
Of course, every great story needs a great soundtrack. One of the best parts about road trips is choosing your musical accompaniment. It’s key to pick the best music and to sing along as loudly as you like, and be sure to add in embarrassing dance moves that you know those passing cars will see.
There is something so fitting about the acoustic sounds of easy-to-sing-along-to music that makes kilometres of highway between stops melt away. I have some of my own personal favourite go-to road trip sounds, and I’m sure you do to, but if you are looking to expand your playlist, give John Welsh’s new EP, On the Road, a listen.
He’s a BC local who wrote all his songs while travelling the world, from New Zealand to Newfoundland, and all the way back home again. His music is upbeat, catchy, and super easy to sing along to while cruising down the highway on your next adventure.
If you’re ever looking for a break — maybe classes are getting a bit overwhelming or your job just kind of sucks — try just taking a day or two to go somewhere different. Maybe you don’t even have a specific destination, but just get up and drive somewhere. If you don’t have a car, I’m sure a friend who does would be up for an adventure, and worst comes to worst you can rent a car. There’s nothing stopping you but yourself, so get out there, get on the road, and don’t forget your iPod.
