I am going on a road trip with my dear friend Jayne Willoughby Scott. We are headed for Ohio where we will take courses at Nancy Crow’s famous barn. It will be a month of challenge and delight.

I love traveling by car. There is a leisurely quality to car travel even if you are in a hurry. In our case we will need to stay focused on our destination, but we hold the possibility of a stop in Chicago to see some art.

When I was a small child we rarely traveled. A major outing would have been from Pittsburg, KS to Parsons, KS to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan. That 30-mile trip was an adventure. Later after we moved to Kansas City we made frequent trips back to Pittsburg to see Grandma Bee. Although I loved visiting my grandma, the trip was agonizingly long. I remember the trips as 2 ½ hours of power struggle with my brothers as we each tried to claim our space in the back seat and my dad occasionally threatening to leave us all at the side of the road.

Although I had not seen traveling in my future, as an adult I had many opportunities to travel and I came to enjoy it very much. I have flown to far flung places, but car travel remains my favorite.

Gary and I have developed our own style of car travel. On long trips we prefer the back roads. We delight in finding surprises along the way. One of my favorites was a spot in Wisconsin where an artisan had constructed and seemingly "planted" concrete statues in a yard. The folk artist, whose name I no longer remember, made bigger-than-life-size men and animals and carts. As we wondered through them I appreciated how this man had been moved to create with the materials he had and just because he needed to do it.

Often Gary and I have traveled with dispatch toward one destination or another. However, as we made our way toward Pittsburgh, PA for a sabbatical in 1992 we decided that we would take our time. In fact, one day we only traveled a few miles. We left Minneapolis and headed to Stillwater. It was such a charming town we decided to spend to day. It seemed so decadent at the time.

Our friends Bill and Shirley Wieland are the most leisurely traveler we know. Once when we visited them in New Zealand they took us on a weekend trip to Alexandra, a lovely ski resort. We puttered away the weekend. It felt deliciously casual. However, we learned about true puttering when it took us four hours to leave the tiny community! I think we went down every street and alley and probably stopped for lunch before we actually left town. It was a grand day.

Jayne and I will not have the luxury of closely examining every street in every town we pass through, but we will have a delightful time filled with good conversation and good music. Jayne is bringing some books on tape (of course they are really on cds). We have planned for frequent stops so that I can stretch my gimpy knees. I’m sure we’ll have our cameras close by to record the adventure as well as capture items and scenes of inspiration.

When we arrive at our destination we plan to be relaxed and ready for three weeks of wonderful classes. What could be better?

© C O P Y R I G H T   2 0 0 9.  Mary Sullivan Holdgrafer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.