The Road Goes on Forever and …….

I will be headed out this afternoon to the North Dallas area for the wedding of one of my best friends in the world, Dino. I will give a wrap up of the wedding when I get back. I am planning on a hilarious bit*, and we will see how it goes.

I don’t know if you have ever had the pleasure of driving from Lubbock to Dallas, but it is the most fantastic 5 ½ hours of your life. Actually I rather cut my leg off with a dull pocket knife to free myself from Bear trap than to make that drive. Not really, but it is boring and very not-scenic. I estimate that I have driven it back and forth somewhere around 125 times in my seven years here, and that is somewhere around 40,000 miles. I get asked all the time, “Hey man, you are here (Dallas) all the time. Why don’t you just move back?” Actually I don’t have the time to write an answer to that question.

Let’s just say that in Lubbock, I’m only 5 ½ hours from Dallas, and while I detest the drive, it is only 5 ½ hours. After say the 80th time to make the drive, it’s just something you accept. I actually don’t even think much of it when I start out for Dallas. I get in what I call the driving to Dallas zone, and I pretty much all but go to sleep. I’ll come to, from time to time, just to make sure that I haven’t missed an exit or to find that Gatorade bottle to relieve myself, of course I do not stop.

It’s the drive back to Lubbock that is the worst. I am usually so tired (and yes sometimes hung-over) that I can’t get into my zone because of the fear of actually going to sleep. I can never find the right song to listen to, the wind is always blowing me all over the road, the sun is right in my eyes because I took too long to finally leave, and the Semi-Trucks always block the road driving at a dawdling pace of 65 mph! I usually hate myself at this time for ever going back to Dallas in the first place.

At about Seymour, TX (halfway), I always vow to myself that I will not make that atrocious drive for at least one month, maybe even two, or three! and if I do maybe I'll just fly next time. When I finally make it to my house, I do not unload one thing from my car. I just jump right into bed and think how great it’s going to be to not have to deal with that stupid drive for a long, long time. This is until the next morning, when I usually get an email from my buddy Smitty saying “Hey Man, Dave (insert any rock band here) is coming to town in two weeks!” and roadtrip #127 has just been planned…



* Bit- a bit is a plot, usually comical, where one person is doing or saying something that the other party thinks is real but actually it is not. It’s a joke.