Bare Necessities

I have found that life on the road requires several things that in any other situation wouldn't be considered "necessities." Dear friends, you should know that the things I am going to tell you about, well, I'm not sure I would function on the road without them.

First of all: a cell phone. Sometimes the road is long and the sun is blinding and you have been in the car for hours without real human interaction. This is when the cell phone is very handy. Several times I've been right on the line between sane and crazy and have found that a little human conversation goes a long way...I say "human conversation" because talking to the cows and other farm animals as you drive by their farms just doesn't cut it...at least in my book.

Secondly: a map. If you're anything like me, you're easily distracted on the road. You look around only to find that you are on highway 218 when you should be on 52. It is at times like these when that map comes in very handy. Of course, you could just call into the office and nicely ask whomever answers to mapquest you some directions out of there--that would be the easiest option, right? Right. But, when you're out in the middle of nowhere, that cell phone I just spoke of so lovingly won't bother working for you and you'll try to dial in spite of the icon of that little phone with the line through it with no real return.

Thirdly: a camera. When you roll into a town and find something cool, you can waste lots of time by busting out the ole camera. I'm in this phase of messing with the settings and turning the cows into cartoon characters, and turning everything different colors--I find it is a good way to waste a little time when I arrive too early.

Fourthly: a book. Of course, the camera works wonderfully for time wasting, but on those lovely drizzly, gloomy, wet days, time is better spent in the car. For this, I find that reading a book is a great distraction. I just started a book my English-teaching sister recommended called "Chasing Grace," and the author's dry humor is quite entertaining.

Fifthly (is that a word?): music. I have to have music in the car. I would be terribly embarrassed if I was ever put on one of those TV shows that videotapes people while they are driving in their cars because I'm the one that's not only singing at the top of her lungs, but also dancing around in my seat waving my hands in the air. At the beginning of the week I was on my James Blunt kick (his new CD rocks!) and then I moved into some Keith Urban, Counting Crows, Tristan Prettyman, A Fine Frenzy, Damien Rice, and of course, the classic Goo Goo Dolls. After listening to these CDs four times each, though, the mind craves something else. So, I reached into the back seat and grabbed the old CD collection. At the beginning of travel season I put all my CDs in the car--all of them. The really old stuff, I mean, the Lion King Soundtrack is in this CD-folio. Anyway, I always go through and pick out the ones that I haven't listened to in ages--embarrassing music, like the Spice Girls and Hanson, and the classics like Fleetwood Mac and Journey, and then of course, there is the random collection of them Mix CDs that were so cool at the time of their creation. (Believe me, they still are!) A couple colleagues of mine recommend books on tape--I see their point, but I've got a whole lot more "Mmm-bop-ing" to do before I switch to the narrated story telling.

Sixth: a little give in the waistband of your pants. One of the not so wonderful things about being on the road is you have to grab lunch on the run sometimes. When you are in these very small towns, lunch on the run often consists of whatever you can find at the local gas station--not always the easiest way to eat healthy! Well, when what you find is pizza that has clearly been sitting in that display case for at least two hours soaking in a puddle of grease, and two minutes later you are driving down the highway and you suddenly find yourself licking up the river of that orange grease that has now made its way down to your wrist...well...enough said...