Truckin'

On Saturday we took a road trip. We loaded eight adults into a van and drove three hours to see Varekai. We stopped to eat, saw the show, then drove home. That's a lot of driving for a two hour show. But it was a special occasion. It was a birthday gift for my mom and both of his parents, all of whom share a birthday week.

Actually, I've always been a fan of the road trip. My ex-boyfriend and I would load two or three friends into my Mustang and just drive. For an hour or six, it didn't matter. We'd end up in the mountains, or by the seashore, or in Canada after a Ramones show*. Sometimes we'd go for a few days, but we thought nothing of driving for 8 hours round trip to spend a few hours in a museum.

Even after that boyfriend, I was a road-tripper. The more spontaneous the better. If a friend mentioned New York City one night while we were drunk, we were driving there by 10 am the next morning. I hadn't planned on going to Woodstock '94, but that Friday I was at a party and before I knew it, seven of us were waking up early on Saturday to make the drive. My sister and I made a hasty retreat from Brooklyn one night after being attacked by her ex-boyfriend's sister, and drove to Philly at 2am.

John and I still take our share of road trips - to the lake, for a hike, to see an art exhibit...so driving out to New Jersey to see Cirque du Soleil was no big deal. And the show was excellent. Worth the drive. But I don't think either of us ever thought, in a million years, that we'd be spending a day cooped up with our parents in a van...on purpose!

*We actually missed the Ramones that night. For some reason, even though we had seen the Ramones many many times in NY and NJ,we drove to Burlington for the Escape From NY Tour. But we took a wrong turn and got there as the concert was letting out, so we actually drove to Burlington only for a slice of pizza. On the way home, a cop gave us a shortcut back to Albany - through Canada. We drove over 13 hours round trip for that pizza.