I LOOOOVE road trips. Whenever an opportunity to hit the open road arises, I rise to the challenge. I’ve been on a few this summer, and plan to do a fair amount more mileage before the snow gets here.
In my experience, there are two types of equally fulfilling road trips, and I’ve only really realized the existence of the second one recently.
Typically, I ride with the wife as we head to wherever the road may take us. Our conversations are generally relaxed, talking about work, family, cats, and on occasion we play the “name that car” game. My wife has developed an uncanny ability to identify countless cars solely based on their rear ends. Its good fun, and we enjoy it quite a bit.
Although my far-better half can appreciate automobiles for what they do, my occasional outbursts of “OMG! Did you see the Renault Fuego Turbo parked by that barn?” are nearly always met with indifference. This allows the road trip to safely continue, undisturbed.
That resumes Road Trip Type 1.
Road trip type 2 is kind of dangerous. On recent excursions south of the border, my good friend and buddy and I just about caused a dozen accidents. You see, when I would say, “OMG! Did you see the Renault Fuego Turbo parked by that barn?” the response would be: “Yeah! Let’s go check it out!” In less than the bat of an eyelash the turn signal, brakes and steering wheel would be fully engaged to get us back to the automotive treasure. The cars behind us did not appreciate our maneuovres…
We couldn't help it… We were feeding off each other’s lunacy.
On one such trip, we were out scouring New England for PlastiDip and we spent more time ogling old relics -- such as a pair of sexy SAAB Sonetts (YES!), some MK1 Volkswagen Sciroccos and more Citroens and Peugeots than I’ve seen in the last 10 years combined -- than we did actually shopping.
Needless to say, although we covered a fair amount of ground we could have done far more, but our slightly unhealthy addiction to all things automotive prevented us from making good time.
I now know that should I want to get somewhere safely and in good time that I need to go at it alone or with people that consider cars as nothing more than appliances.
In my experience, there are two types of equally fulfilling road trips, and I’ve only really realized the existence of the second one recently.
Typically, I ride with the wife as we head to wherever the road may take us. Our conversations are generally relaxed, talking about work, family, cats, and on occasion we play the “name that car” game. My wife has developed an uncanny ability to identify countless cars solely based on their rear ends. Its good fun, and we enjoy it quite a bit.
Although my far-better half can appreciate automobiles for what they do, my occasional outbursts of “OMG! Did you see the Renault Fuego Turbo parked by that barn?” are nearly always met with indifference. This allows the road trip to safely continue, undisturbed.
That resumes Road Trip Type 1.
Road trip type 2 is kind of dangerous. On recent excursions south of the border, my good friend and buddy and I just about caused a dozen accidents. You see, when I would say, “OMG! Did you see the Renault Fuego Turbo parked by that barn?” the response would be: “Yeah! Let’s go check it out!” In less than the bat of an eyelash the turn signal, brakes and steering wheel would be fully engaged to get us back to the automotive treasure. The cars behind us did not appreciate our maneuovres…
We couldn't help it… We were feeding off each other’s lunacy.
On one such trip, we were out scouring New England for PlastiDip and we spent more time ogling old relics -- such as a pair of sexy SAAB Sonetts (YES!), some MK1 Volkswagen Sciroccos and more Citroens and Peugeots than I’ve seen in the last 10 years combined -- than we did actually shopping.
Needless to say, although we covered a fair amount of ground we could have done far more, but our slightly unhealthy addiction to all things automotive prevented us from making good time.
I now know that should I want to get somewhere safely and in good time that I need to go at it alone or with people that consider cars as nothing more than appliances.
 |
| Photo: Olivier Delorme |
 |
| Photo: Olivier Delorme |