The Road Less Traveled

Guest Opinion

Imagine this: You’ve decided to move suddenly from one state to another, totaling over 2,000 miles. You have a choice to take a slightly expensive flight and mail all your belongings later, like many do. All you have to do is book the ticket and make a quick stop at USPS. Easy.

But what if you didn’t do that? What if—and hear me out on this—you decided to cancel those plans and instead drive the distance for two days on a highway with your trunk stuffed to the brim. And let’s make it even better: You lengthen the trip to five days so you can see a variety of kooky roadside attractions and make it just in time to snag the keys to your new place.

Sounds like a logistical nightmare, right? Except it isn’t, and I did this trip with my mom on my fourteenth birthday as a present—thanks, Mom! And it wasn’t that bad as you might think.

First: the road-trip rep. When I begin telling people about my drive escapades, it’s like I’ve just screamed “bomb” in a TSA security line. While a road trip may be considered the perfect getaway when you need some “me time,” it seems almost horrific to imagine choosing the grit of a cross-country drive to a comfortable and easy flight. Why heave all your things in a tiny car to drive over half the country when you can just ship everything and fly?

Except, try to remember the last time you had such a memorable (in a good way) flight that you talked about it for years after. A flight is so quick that we usually forget we’re passing so much land at such an astonishing speed. There’s a real sense of adventure in being able to travel long distances—but how are you supposed to say you’ve travelled when you haven’t seen anything? When you chose the easiest route?

As our society further shifts into the ease of instant convenience, life, we start seeing things as the “basic.” Driving to a 7-Eleven when it’s a 10-minute walk is the basic, so is ordering food online instead of just walking to said 7-Eleven, or (let’s get real) booking a flight when you can drive.

For me? There was a 7-Eleven eight minutes’ walking distance from my home in Florida that I would walk barefoot to for a bag of Twix. We couldn’t afford to order DoorDash-style delivery back then, so we would wait until we were all out, and then as a family, all go to an Aldi together. And we never flew.

So I try to ignore this convenient lifestyle we all live with now and force myself to do the “hard things” every once and a while. I take the stairs, I pay with cash, and I do road trips whenever I can.

For example, the five-day trip my mother and I took when we decided to move from Miami to Denver. During this “nightmare” of a ride, I saw Georgia’s Rock City (an extremely tall waterfall on a cliff in the middle of nowhere), Metropolis in Illinois (hello, Superman statue!), and the bizarre Hillbilly Toyland in Kentucky (dolls, junk art, and a swamp).

And recently I drove with my mom and sisters from Nashville to Denver after touring Vanderbilt University. It was a winding, 17-hour journey where my mom and I swapped seats—marking it a day closer to me getting my shiny new license (watch out, Colorado!) and more time to spend with my mom. We drove through hilly roads as we sang to The Beatles, my mom’s country-rock, and my favorite obsession: Broadway musicals.

Of course, not all road trips go to plan. That’s where the real terrifying tales of these vacations come from.

When going from Miami to Denver, we popped a tire right before passing into Kansas. And promptly after, we then became the unfortunate new owners of a $150 speeding ticket—for going five miles per hour over on a highway. Thanks, Kansas!

And when driving back to Denver from Nashville, we almost got wiped out by a tornado storm…also in Kansas. Not a good look.

Even so, both times my mom and I figured out a way to get past it. For the tire, we spent the eight hours refueling the air every time we saw a gas station. We sadly paid off the ticket. And we narrowly survived the tornadoes by speeding right through!

All that to say, sometimes doing the harder thing can be the most rewarding. I don’t remember anything from any flight, other than getting peanuts when I asked for plantain chips. On road trips you pick your own snacks. And you remember all the great—and, of course, all the bad too. That’s what makes any trip fun.

So what would you choose? The mostly comfortable airline seats with free movies, air conditioning, and time to sleep, or the janky car with cramping legs, burnt coffee, and a need to keep your eyes on the road?

For me, it’s an easy pick.

Quinn De Vecchi is a creative writing senior at Interlochen Arts Academy.

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