Road Trips
For many Americans, road trip's are the quintessential expression of youth and freedom. The United States is a vast and wild land, and though cities and town dot the landscape, there are still wide-open spaces and pockets of fascinating cultures and places to be found beyond the suburbs.
Many young Americans have found their inspiration from the writings of Jack Kerouac, in his seminal work On the Road. In it, Kerouac describes the exhilarating journey of traversing the whole of the country through any means necessary: be it through driving, hitchhiking or catching a train in the night. It a romantic symbol of road trips: harnessed with the freedom of youth and the rejection of societal conformity. It is a tribute to living life to the fullest through the richness of experience and the encounters with colorful characters along the way. More than that, the road trips he takes are symbolic gestures to the journey that we all take through life, with its travails, adversities, joys and profound realizations.
Flying by plane is a poor method of transport if one wants to see a country through its shifting topography, range of accents, diversity of towns and groups of people. Part of the thrill of taking road trips is being without any set itinerary. You will get there when you, well, get there. There may be some vague month of arrival in your mind, but there are an infinite amount of variables if you take chance roads and stop in random towns. Some of my friends have gone on road trips, stopped in cities, and never left. Others have met their partners or best friends for life when they were merely stopping in a town for the night. Still others have made their fortunes playing at card tables in Reno, while others have lost their fortunes betting over roulette in Louisiana, all the while cognizant of the fact that this was part and parcel to heading out on their one of many road trips around the country.
There is no one correct way of taking road trips, but there are some things to consider should you decide to go. Bringing a friend along is always a great idea, if not only for a bit of company and conversation, but for the sake of safety. Yet there are drawbacks to this too, because with the constant contact that you have with each other, it may appear to be too much to handle in the end. It will be a risk that you take, but can be an experience that can make a superficial friendship a lasting one for years to come.
Getting a decent car, having some cash and bringing some maps are all helpful tips if you decide to embark on road trips. They are insurance that you don't end up on the side of the road, with no money and no idea where you are at 1:00 in the morning. For some, this may not be their idea for freedom. For others, this may be the spontaneity they are looking for when they thought about road trips in the first place, a situation worthy of the spirit of Kerouac.
Summary
The United States is a vast and wild land, and though cities and town dot the landscape, there are still wide-open spaces and pockets of fascinating cultures and places to be found beyond the suburbs. Many young Americans have found their inspiration from the writings of Jack Kerouac, in his seminal work On the Road.
