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I didn’t really have any solid ideas on what to blog about this afternoon, but after reading a blog about a bad crazy driving experience, I thought I’d touch on that.

http://ambermcinnis.blogspot.com/2006/09/so-glad-thats-over.html (Thanks Amber - my inspiration for today )

So anyway, I have always enjoyed driving. I failed the drivers test mulitple times, but that’s not the point. I enjoy driving. Especially alone, especially in areas I don’t know. Ethan use to ask me if we could “go get lost” as we’d put it. Course, gas was much cheaper back then, and about the only thing we could afford to do for fun, so we’d do it twice a week at least, rain or shine. Then Suz came, and she screamed whenever you buckled her in until she got out. So that ended that for a while.

I love driving because I love singing at the top of my voice. I love seeing new things. I love watching the sunset, or sunrise. The birds in the sky. Pulling over to investigate an old cemetary. I even considered becoming a truck driver for about one week. Then I realized it’s a job, and it really doesn’t allow for much site seeing, plus even driving cross country gets repetitive when you have to stick to interstates.

I am an oddity in my family for this. Especially on my mother’s side of the family. My Grandmother doesn’t drive. Neither does her sister-in-law, my Great Aunt. They have always relied on someone to drive them to the store, or to appointments, or to church. They always lived in town too, so for a while, could walk to places they needed to go.

My mother drives, but will not drive out of town except to go to work or some where close and familiar, like my house. She will not drive to any metropolitan areas. She takes all the side streets and back ways when driving around her town that now has a population of 55,000.

My sister is just like her. However, my sister has driven out of state once now. Before she went, I drove her through the state capital so she could take notes on how to change roads, etc… to make it to the other side of the big Little Rock, so she could cruise on down South.

I have a cousin who grew up in Arkansas, and after much peer pressure, got a drivers liscense. Then as soon as she could, bolted the state for college, and I don’t know that she’s driven much since. She’s moved to cities with public transportation like cabs, buses, and trains. In a way, I think public transportation is a great thing. But it only works for big cities. Like over a population of 100,000.

Where I live, I have to know how to drive in order to have any independence. Not so long ago, many families were one car families. I can’t even walk 1/2 a mile before my road hits a highway. Not the safest walking area. If the highway were safe…and all I needed was milk…I could walk 5 miles to the nearest store and get it..on the highway…then 5 miles back home again…Oh, and did I mention that I’d have to take my kids with me if they were home?

But since public transporation is out for my neck of the woods, I’d still like to see some more people carpooling. Just think, if half of Los Angelos did that, they’d probably cut their drive time from 3 hours down to 2!

It boils down to this. I enjoy driving. I wholeheartedly appreciate carpooling, and public transportation. If I could do both, I would.