Sometimes a road trip is just a means to get to an end. A forced march to a point in time and place that greets you with relief when you get there. We've all taken these and most are forgettable and barely leave a ripple in your memory. Largely because most of it is spent in a long daydream there is little memory that remains of the trip. Just a collection of fleeting thoughts, daydreams and random associations.
Then there is the 'Road trip'. The standout experience that one recalls every time a smell, a sound or a word casts one memory back. it might be a special car or the company one shares on the journey. Whatever the circumstances you usually know when you are sharing a special time and place. These are the quintessential existential driving experiences. You live these in the moment, time suspended in the immediate present, reading and reacting to the roads every turn. What passed moments ago is just a flicker of a trembling image in mirror that vanishes. No time for the past because the present is upon you with each new turn. No certainty in the future except that which meets you as the road unfolds as it should before you, everychanging.
Mongolian 4 lane Hwy
This rally may well prove to be this later kind of road trip. One that generates a host of shared experiences whose memory we share for years to come. I know that we will have our share of exhilaration and despair. It seems every race we enter has plenty of both. We will enjoy the company of likeminded 'competators' and share in their laughter and stories and lend each other a hand when things get tough. Thats just the way of it in these events.
We all know how this event will start and most of us feel ready for the challenge. Yet we none of us know how it will end for a certainly. What the High and lows will be along the way. Maybe thats the secret of a good road trip?
Prince Borgese arrives at the end of the road…Paris