Back roads and Highways

Road trips are a subject that I keep going back to in my posts; I suppose this is because so many interesting things can happen while you are traveling.

On the interstates you can get somewhere in a hurry and when we were younger and vacation time was short I shutter to think of the miles we drove without stopping.

I once drove straight through to my hometown in South Carolina from New Mexico. Just my cousin Chris and I, it took twenty-two hours. That's an average of about seventy miles per hour, that doesn't sound too bad, but how about doing that for twenty-two hours straight?

I only stopped for coffee and gasoline, we made good time but I was beat by the time we arrived, we were going for our Grandmothers funeral, which was at 10am on the Monday morning that we arrived at 5am.

To make a long story short we traveled a little over three thousand miles in three days, slept maybe four hours, and went to a funeral, I'm happy it wasn't mine.

A trip like this you see absolutely nothing, the miles pass too quickly in the dark and even though this wasn't a pleasure trip it sure would have been less dangerous had we flown instead.

Cindy and I once loaded the kids into our car about two in the morning and headed for the interstate, the idea was that the kids would sleep and I could drive until daylight, the traffic would be light and we could get a long way down the road while it was quiet........nothing is ever this easy.

I had told her of how Cousin Chris and I had driven all the way to South Carolina in twenty two hours with no problems, well eighteen hours later and we were not even to Little Rock, we wanted to make it to Jackson, Tennessee before we stopped, that wasn't going to happen, I wrote about this trip in my post Family Vacations

That's how you roll when you are younger, the good thing about traveling down the highway like this is you usually get there quicker, the bad thing is you don't get to see much of anything and once you get there, all you want to do is sleep.

Now since we have somewhat matured, Cindy and I take road trips differently, I don't drive after dark anymore, nor do I drive before daylight, we stop a lot and really don't drive too far without spotting something we want to stop and see, we once stopped at the "Worlds Largest Pistachio" just to take a picture, and for Cindy to buy Pistachios.

Cindy with a giant pistachio

A day trip from California to New Mexico can take us two days now, just because by the time evening rolls around we are getting hungry and we might as well get some rest, it's not worth it for me to rush anywhere.

The thing about taking your time whether on a back road or highway is the view, there are millions of "tourist traps" that are interesting to see.

The Cadillac Ranch Outside of Amarillo, Texas, or The Peachoid a water tower shaped like a peach in Gaffney, SC, and even a Pistachio Tree Ranch in Alamogordo, New Mexico, these are just a few of the millions of places to see while traveling the highways.

Peachoid water tower Gaffney, SC

Back roads are a whole different trip, some people use nothing but back roads, they avoid highways at all costs and can impress you with their back road navigating skills, my brother Norm is one of those people.

Whenever Cindy and I are back home in South Carolina we spend a lot of time traveling between three different towns visiting relatives, driving from my little Sisters house through my hometown to my Dads house is about a half hours drive by highway, but it is a straight shot and easy to remember.

Norm once asked why we didn’t go the back way, I didn’t know there was a back way so from the backseat he started giving directions, turn left up here, go around that curve and turn right after you cross the bridge, see that fork in the road, bear left then make a hard right, and after you pass that fence turn left.

I was so confused and had absolutely no idea where we were, but the scenery was amazing, we saw deer, and homes that looked so peaceful, there were tables on the side of the road with fruits, vegetables, and honey for sale, there were rivers and some of the roads we drove down made you feel like you were in a tunnel, this was because of the tree branches reaching over the road to meet one another….this was beautiful, you don’t see nature like this on the highway.

All of a sudden we are at the turnoff to my Dads house, the only difference is we were arriving from the opposite direction, and the entire trip only took ten minutes time.

Back roads and highways have their own advantages, depending on what you want to do, I love road trips and we always have a great time, but there are also advantages to getting on a plane and renting a car once you get there.

Do you like visiting roadside attractions, shops, and tourist traps?