People drive cars for a variety of reasons. Some drive to get to work, others to drop their kids to school or to their myriad activities; some others as a means of livelihood.. and then there are folks like me who drive since it gives immense pleasure.
I consider myself fortunate to be in a position to be able to buy my own car - my own mean machine that is a testimony of man's progress in engineering. I'm sure my parents' eyes must've welled up when I told them the happy news (I stay away from them in the USA so I couldn't experience it first-hand). I'm saying this not coz I'm boasting about the car, but because I'm from an average middle class family for whom owning a car is a huge deal and a product of years of careful investment. When I heard my mom dad saying they're proud of me becoming independent, that's when I prized my car even more - its my own, my baby, my faithful companion. She signifies my freedom...my independence....my efforts......and she makes me look darn good ;)
It might be just co-incidence, but I've ended up driving mostly at nights rather than daylight. There's something very thrilling about how the hundreds of reflectors lining the freeway lanes shine due to your headlights. And it feels like a game setting with you exercising total control on your ride. Adrenaline.. here it comes..
So day before yesterday I was driving a friend home. As the city of San Francisco started rising up at the horizon, it looked like jewels studded on a sloping canvas.. beckoning to keep driving to them. After dropping him and turning back home, I took a casual decision to drive by the scenic Bay bridge by the coast instead of taking the shorter internal freeway (CA-101).
(what the junction might've looked like in daylight)
It was 3:30 am after a friday night party and I was slightly tired. I began to reconsider my decision about taking this detour unfamiliar to me. Plus my phone-cum-GPS leading me home was almost drained of charge. But I kept driving and then a sight like this (even more spectacular up close) materializes in front of me!
It was mesmerizing... my body dint feel a single tinge of my weariness as I took in this image passing next to the street I drove on. "Best decision ever to drive here although its wayy too late in the night." So captivating! I was driving alone but I didn't miss anyone in those moments.... simply me and my wheels...
Hoping to have more such great drives. In a place like California, one just hits the road and welcomes any destination because the journey... is just beautiful.
Liked it. Breathing freedom is true life. Devoting time for our own activities helps !!!. Keep driving, keep rocking \m/
ReplyDeleteLike!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWaiting for the first ride i get in YOUR car..:)...
Ohh and btw..I'm proud of you too!!!! :)
>:D<
P.S. Don't forget the $500..:P
Nice car ! :) Enjoy....oh and that pic of the bridge is simply awesome! :)
ReplyDeleteTook the I-280, didn’t cha? My friends & I took it on the way home from SFO a few months ago – and it was a noticeably more enjoyable drive than the 101. Quiet, out-of-the-way-type and wonderfully isolated. We needed to re-fuel, so we took a random exit (following the promptings of a Garmin NuVi), and proceeded to lose our way with a GPS. We came across 2 deserted gas stations – the likes of which you would only expect along US Route 50 (on my ‘to-do’ list).. If you thought CA was pretty, wait till you find yourself in the ..err… ‘interior’. I never thought so serene a place could exist in the Bay area.. somehow the trees were just that little bit greener, and the lawns were a little more lush.. and we’d never be able to find that little labyrinth of lanes.. (We suspect it was somewhere around Redwood city)..
ReplyDeleteA thought struck me just now – something in your post - I think it wasn’t that the place we found ourselves in was exceptional – it probably was the stuff you’ve described.. a clear night, good company, a nice car, and an open road ……..
Your blogs always bring back memories .. somehow it never fails :)
I’ve said this before- and I wasn’t kidding. Tolkien’s words do find my lips at these times.. and somehow the whole experience is just that little bit richer when they do!
‘a testimony of man's progress in engineering’ – you really DO sound like Dagny Taggart.
I miss being anon…
(and I am serious about the haunted (I have a colorful imagination) gas stations in the Bay area – who knew, eh?)
Glad to know you anon :D your comments certainly add value to my articles :)
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