Kinks, Sminks.
Much more so when it was cheaper, I’ll admit. However, I never really drove aimlessly, but I would make non-essential road trips. Like drive an hour one-way just for a burger. (This little place up north has amazing burgers!!) Or drive to Milwaukee for no real reason, just to spend the day in Milwaukee.
I love driving, but the cost has really made it hard.
I’ll do this, but that really isn’t aimless - it’s to see the town. And I’ll take the long (windy) road instead of the more straightforward one. And I like roadtrip driving. But there’s usually a purpose or at least a flimsy pretext for driving.
I’ve done it since I was a child and Dad was driving. We used to pick up my great grandmother from her apartment and take her out for a picnic at some random country location.
As an adult, every time I move I spend my free time the first couple weeks losing myself and finding my way home again I found things that friends who had lived there for years had no idea existed. I love driving around and finding things accidentally.
I take road trips once or twice a year. My most epic was when I moved cross-country about five years ago, and decided to visit a half dozen friends all across the continent before settling back down. My itinerary was Oregon → New Mexico → Chihuahua → Oklahoma → Alabama → Pennsylvania → New York → Quebec → Tennessee and it was great. I keep meaning to recreate it one day but have settled for smaller 1,000 to 1,5000 mile round trip journeys for the most part now.
41/F/Inner ring suburb
I do enjoy driving just to drive. It began in college when I decided to take a road trip up north, but rather than driving straight up I took all kinds of side roads, wandered into Wisconsin, visited family members who I hadn’t seen since I was in elementary school. It was my first real taste of freedom - no one depending on me, no schedule.
After TheKid was born, it was common for her and I to take rambling drives to help her fall asleep. Then we moved to the country and had an almost hour commute each way every day. The car became our place to talk. It continues to this day. Whenever a big issue comes up, we go for a drive. I do have destinations in mind, but if we don’t get there, that’s okay.
Are you saying that you have a prejudice against people who can afford a nicer car but don’t buy one?
My dad used to pile us all into the car and go driving on Sundays. I bitterly resented this – when I found out we weren’t going anyplace, I felt betrayed. I still hate driving (though not as much as I hate public transportation), and have only truly enjoyed riding a motorcycle a couple of times (out of about 120,000 riding miles).
Come to think of it, I really don’t enjoy going places at all, nor sightseeing from a car, or any of it. I like being places.
Unless you count Jeeping, not at all. I’d rather be at home.
Jeeping is a verb? Why wouldn’t jeeping count? Are you rolling around over mountain trails and sand dunes ang ruining nature’s quiet for the rest of us?
Not much anymore, but I used to love to. Good times.
Oddly, I did this just today. First day in a coon’s age I haven’t had some sort of commitment, so off I went. I sort of had a destination, but I took several detours to get there, and back.
I’m 45. I bought a 2007 Mustang about a year and half ago, so call it my midlife crisis if you like.
If I lived in an area where there was very little to no traffic, I’d do it a lot. As it is…not so much.
Male, late 30s. I used to do it when I was younger and had fewer responsibilities. I do still enjoy it occasionally, although I do have to admit my “practical, fuel-efficient commuter car” is less fun for recreational driving than my “zippy sports sedan” was.
Back in high school days, and right after, we all used to just drive around aimlessly, blasting the radio. ‘Good times’ is right! These days, driving anywhere is just another chore, though sometimes we’ll take a shortish road trip to a specific destination, on a dull afternoon. I drive a real gas guzzler and there’s so much traffic to deal with! Age: 50 ish.
Yes, in my car and on my motorcycle, but only before age 40. Somehow I just began losing interest, and now I don’t do it any more.
I do, I’m 26/F.
I love driving. Going on errands, wandering through new (to me) neighborhoods, just seeing where this or that road goes…Good times.
But I do not like driving for long stretches on road trips. That is boring as shit.
I’m 37, married (to a guy who does like highway driving, thank goodness), and have 2 kids. But I prefer to drive alone and with loud music.
I don’t, but my husband does. He’ll grab the dog and be off, with no destination in mind. Usually he just drives to the next town (eight miles), passes by friends’ houses to see who might be out in the yard, stop and chat. Or he’ll get on the bike and cruise around the lakes.
True, he’s contributing to air pollution, but he’s too arthritic to get on a bicycle, and there are too many loose dogs for a walk to be pleasurable (or healthy).
M - 58
Yes, but not nearly as often as I used to. After living in the flatlands of Illinois and now SE Texas for over 15 years, my interest has dwindled. In the 70s & 80s I used to love a weekend “wake & bake” followed by country road exploring…