Consumer Escapes - Driving Alone on the Open Road

The following is excerpted from an article in Men's Health, April 2010, by Dan Neil. I noted it as a MUST post. On this beautiful spring day it also makes me want to go for a ride. Enjoy ...
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It's a trope of pop psychology that a man needs time to sulk and suck his paw -- that men are different from their it-takes-a-village counterparts. And yet it's the truth. This bit of wiring in a man's brain may be the evolutionary product of eons of lonely hunting and gathering; however he came by it, his impulse to be alone runs deep.

The solo car trip is one of the few activities that lets men be alone without having their solitude pathologized. Try telling your friends and family that you'll be spending a few days at the beach alone, or going off sailing by yourself. The reaction is likely to be disbelief or worry. One of the many amusing aspects of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford's fall from grace was his alibi -- that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail alone. (He was in Argentina, in fact, visiting his girlfriend.) The very notion of hiking alone seemed enough to make people doubt his mental health. What if he'd said he was just going for a drive?

Long-distance driving has emerged in literature, from Jack Kerouac to Stephen King, as a kind of American zen, a practice of falling into the massive hypnotism of the road, mindful of the moment, the scenery scrolling by in its peripheral totality. A week on the road alone is a rare and fantastic gift to myself. I can start to hear myself think. On the first day, I rehash arguments with former girlfriends and wives. On the second day, I commune with the spirit of my father, gone 30 years. By day three, I can actually start producing new thoughts. I start thinking about changing the world.

A bad day on the open road is . . . well, there is no bad day.

Link to full article