Is It Still Fun to Drive?

Slowed up on the Beltway near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Maryland

I suppose, in some ways, the title of this post is rhetorical.

And, yet...

I found myself pondering this back in August, somewhere around Virginia.

Too many recent trips have been painful. I'm always strategizing prior to the drive and glancing at Waze during it.

I almost lose sleep. I get grumpy.

As we're driving to North Carolina, how do we get around traffic in NYC? Philly? Baltimore? DC? Northern Virginia? Will Richmond be a problem?

I'm all for letting my wheels spin on alternate routes. That's a certain part of the joy and it occupies my mind.

But staring at brake lights on the Capital Beltway or the New Jersey Turnpike or Interstate 84 or 95 in Connecticut or the Mass Pike or anywhere else is simply torture.

Have I just gotten old? Has traffic gotten worse? (It's probably "yes" to both)

I realize my road friends might respond with traffic volumes and whatnot, so I beg they do not take me that literally.

I love a road trip. I yearn for it. There are so many more things I want to see on the great roads of this country, Canada, Europe, and beyond.

But, truthfully, is it not fun anymore? Has some of the fun been taken away?

I drove from Mahopac to North Carolina in Aug 2018 with the usual crew of my mother and Sean. We made a couple of quick stops and were down near Fayetteville in about nine hours. It was pure bliss and joy, and I fear that was an aberration.

Other trips have featured dead stop traffic or having to venture out through the mountains of Virginia, through West Virginia, and into Pennsylvania to avoid the very same.

I've wandered along Interstates 64 and 81, US 17 and 29 and 15, Interstate 66, Interstate 78.

All that to avoid Richmond to Washington on I-95 north in Virginia on a Sunday in summer.

I've done 695 and 83 and 30 and 222 to get around the Jersey shore. A very bad "situation," indeed.

Will this stop me? Oh, not a chance. I'm ready to do it again, and I'm not preparing to retire the steering wheel yet.

In fact, I went to Florida for the first time 50 years ago this December. I remember zero of it because I was a year old. But I made that drive some 14 more times, with the last one in 1989.

It's a drive I would love to do again.

So, I guess driving is still fun in theory.

But there have been some spots lately where it's caused me to wonder.