free rommy New York → Kansas City → San Francisco → Stockholm → Berlin

The Road Trip – An American Thing

I woke up this morning with a strong desire to take a road trip. Then it occurred to me that I haven't taken a road trip in two years (except for that small one I took in January). Then it further occurred to me that in general, Europeans don't take road trips!

Living in northern California, road trips were a very regular way of getting away from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco city life and the techwelming Silicon Valley. They were a way of letting off some steam. Road trips were big there because many people had cars, at least those of us living in SF and working in Silicon Valley.

Very few months went by when we didn't take road trips. We'd often take short day trips to Napa and Sonoma. Then there were the longer ones to Tahoe, Big Sur, Santa Barbara, and the national parks. Perhaps what made it so easy to road trip in San Francisco, was the relative proximity of so many amazing places. Summers in northern CA were an opportunity to throw the top down on the car, escape the bonechilling fog of San Francisco and hit the road for a little good old American frontier exploration.

Heck even Kansas City saw its share of road trips to St. Louis, Memphis, the Ozarks, Nebraska, etc.

I don't miss my car here. In fact, I don't want to ever drive again if I can avoid it. I'd gotten so used to my car as a utilitarian vehicle for transport, that I began to resent it.

Europe is a mass transit culture, inter and intracity. I know very few friends with cars here, and they rarely use them for recreational purposes. Most people I know here would avoid driving if they could and they often do. Most friends I had in California couldn't comprehend life without a car or vehicle of some sort. It was a mental and financial burden that I was glad to shed when I came here.

But there are those moments when you just wish you had a car to hit the road and to escape from reality for a bit. I think I need to get some friends together for a European road trip this summer.