I’ve learned a thing or two about the quintessential travel experience known as The Road Trip. In 2014-2015, I road tripped in 25 U.S. states! Before that, I’d really only taken one as an adult solo and one as an adult paired. One of the best parts of road tripping is stopping for scenic overlooks and diverting for scenic routes. You might even revisit roads you think you know and see them in a new light. Those second chances can provide some of the best experiences of your trip and on the journey of life.
Never Overlook the Overlooks
Pulling over for scenic overlooks can affect “making good time” on a road trip, but it can certainly make FOR a good time. Driving 75 mph down the interstate, it might seem a little silly to get out of the groove and pull over just because a sign suggests you might want to take a look. But they are practically always worth the pause.
Rather than trying to find a good view of an unfamiliar place, you are being guided by experts to the best ones. Take a photo or just take a breather, but enjoy the break as well as the view. A scenic overlook gives you a chance to stretch your legs, rest your eyes and get some fresh air. You’ll climb back in the car feeling revived, refreshed, and from the presumably beautiful scenery, blessed. A brief stop at a scenic overlook helps me feel like a whole new person.
A couple years ago, I never would have imagined taking a long break at this point of my career, but now that I am back on the professional highway with a great new job, I feel like a whole new person. In the scheme of life and the decades of a career, I really did just take a slight pause for some incredible views and the time to stretch my legs and spread my wings. Don’t overlook the scenic overlooks. They are there for a reason.
Shout Out to Scenic Routes
I insist on road tripping with a paper map. GPS can be a lifesaver, of course, and it’s extremely helpful in finding the quickest way from A to B. To get to your job (when you have a job) or to the airport on time, definitely default to the quickest route. Yet, how often have we heard wise words about how the best things in life don’t come easily? Any true traveler is open to the scenic routes. It is my completely unscientific estimation that, when asked what is one’s best, fondest, most educational travel memory, 95% of people would relate a time that was completely unplanned, off-route or when they got lost only to stumble onto a lively street fair, a friendly stranger or some other random good fortune. These scenic routes might seem inefficient, but the experience gained is what sets us apart from those who only travel on the easy roads.
Besides, the scenic routes so often wind up reconnecting to the original road. Although I was willing to move practically anywhere for the right new job, the one I ended up with is back where I started, in the city in which I’d lived prior to all this travel. So I am home, in a sense, and I certainly feel like this is where I am meant to be now. I just took a VERY scenic route to get here and learned many invaluable lessons on the way, lessons which I can apply to my new position and my old home. Here’s a shout out to taking the scenic route.
Finance the Second Chance
In June, I was lying in bed far later in the morning than I should have been, simultaneously over- and underwhelmed at the thought endless cover letters to write. It hit me, hard, “I am going to find the right job, and soon. When will I ever have this amount of free time again? Hopefully never!” Within an hour, my backpack was loaded in the car, and I was headed down the open road with a vague plan of reaching Grand Teton National Park. It was pretty spontaneous and turned into one of the best journeys I’ve ever had and the last long one I’ll take for awhile, in a literal sense.
Before this particular road trip, I would have said that driving across Wyoming was a desolate chore, a few landmarks with a lot of miles and antelope between them. BOY, WAS I WRONG. I think it’s very important to admit when I am wrong, so that statement deserves all caps. I’d lived in Wyoming for nearly a decade and traveled the state extensively for work but rarely for pleasure. Oregon Trail stops, the Wind River Mountain Range, Togwotee Pass – I’d seen all these places before, but with ample time and my newly expanded traveler’s perspective, I had a second chance to experience these sights again but fall in love with them all for the first time.
We never get another “first time,” but every so often, we are given second chances on the road of life. The key is to recognize and maximize them. The first time I moved to my current city, I had so much hope and excitement. I was going to find a fantastic job, a committed relationship with whom to explore all the fun things about the city, and be the model of urban chic, living and working downtown. Turns out, because of parking and crime, I didn’t like living downtown (other than the nice people in my apartment building), I couldn’t afford those chic possessions, I dated some nice guys but nothing lasting, and the job was such a not-fantastic fit that it was unceremoniously severed. In short, I had really high hopes, and I quite dramatically failed to reach them… the first time.
Now, however, I write from a secure apartment in a part of the city I know and adore and in which I have a designated parking space. Since I spent nearly three months in some of Europe’s most fashionable cities with only a backpack, I know that those urban chic material possessions aren’t nearly as important as what I carry in my heart. And whatever didn’t work out about my previous employment, I am pouring said heart into my new role because it feels like one of the best opportunities of my life.
I am financing my second chance, investing in it because first chances might slip away like whispers, but if you miss a second chance, it’s pretty much your own damn fault. Second chances slap us in the face like, “Hey, show me what you’ve learned! Show me how you’ve grown! It’s Take Two and take a risk, but don’t take five if you want to thrive!”Second chances aren’t about waiting around or screwing around, they are about seizing every opportunity to succeed where you’ve previously failed. The grand and meaningful journey is the one maximizing risk and reward, faith over fear, the quick way vs. the road less-traveled, and the willingness to say yes and give it your best. The road may be long, but the trip is far too short. Maybe this time around, I’ll even find someone who’s along for the ride.
Shine on my friends.
Your voice matters!