Go... Somewhere!

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Yes, just when you were getting used to blog offerings of some substance, and lots of pictures, I have suspended my travels and returned to my shanty of dis-solicitude.  So, it’s back to the inane ravings upon which I have built my reputation as a sophist.  But we will delay the return to the realm of the ridiculous for another week and take this opportunity to make a few brief observations relative to traveling the man’s way, by car (or in my case truck, but the only real difference is the size of parking space I need).

Although Montrose, Colorado is a nice enough place and visits with Aunt Barbara a joy, any traveler of will tell you, “It’s not the destination, but the journey.”  And that is certainly true of my excursions.  I refer you to my blog post of 9/19/13, How to Plan a Road Trip (www.daleholbrookoutwest.blogspot.com) for some insight on my methods.  All trips will have at least a general if not specific distance limitation; let’s face it, we must return home, if only to pick up our stopped mail.  But when one focuses the trip plan on an end point, whether geographical location or experience gained, they often find the achievement was less enriching than anticipated.  (“Peru, eh.” Right Tumbleweed?)  You see, when too much planning is applied to what you already know is there, then by the time you arrive, you’ve imagined everything it could be.  But many times it isn’t all you imagined and doesn’t live up to expectations.

On the other hand, one should travel with an open agenda and focus on finding unknown treasures along the way rather than only well-established points of interest.  Let me offer you a short parable:  If you embark on a journey carrying a bag containing everything you expected to see along the way, the contents of your bag would be the same at trip’s end as it was at departure.  But, if you picked up some memento (these could be ethereal as well as physical) at each site you encountered something unexpected, by journey’s end you would have a bag full of new stuff to pore over for years to come.  Is this making any sense at all?  I feel like I’m floundering here.

Let me give you a real life example.  Your destination is the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  It is your first visit to this must see phenomenon. But let’s face it, you have seen pictures all your life, and while it can be a stirring experience, you pretty much know what you’re going to see when you get there.  Now let’s take a different approach.  You are travelling to the Grand Canyon and have committed enough time to allow visits to all of the small towns along old Route 66 which are now bypassed by I-40.  One of the treasures you will add to your bag is Snow Cap Drive-in in Seligman, Arizona, where the owners not only serve hamburgers in the early style, but provide customers with kitsch comedy routines in the process (sorry Vegans, I guess you’ll just have to order iced tea… but I recommend a milkshake anyway, at least).

On this most recent trek, I discovered things and places I’d never seen or even heard of.  I traveled roads that that looked unimpressive on the map, but turned out to offer vista of unexpected grandeur.  In some cases, although I try to avoid the effort, I actually learned things; imagine that.

So in the interest of brevity (I know what you’re thinking, “Too late!”), I will leave you with this quote from my favorite traveler, “Hmm. I guess I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque!”