Time alone on the road.....

My wanderlust got the best of me this weekend. It was pretty bad......in such a good way.

I was trying to be productive Sunday. Balancing school, work, studio work, doing shows, ect....I hardly have a time to just do something for the soul. I've been dying to go on a road trip lately, but haven't had the cash to do so and have a persisting thought of being too busy to plan anything.

So Sunday, I was running errands. I was going to go to Walmart and do some grocery shopping. But when I got there, around 2:30, I found myself turning on NPR and playing Angry Birds in my car for 30 minutes. I think I just didn't wanna keep going without doing something for me. I deserved it, right? The thought of just continuing on without taking some ME time, it was actually kind of pissing me off.

So at 3:00, I had a moment of spontaneity. I decided that I wasn't going to do anything until I'd had an open road moment. I needed it, and I was going to get it, damnit!

So I drove out of Marion, hitting US 23 northbound. I had no destination in mind, I was just going to drive and see where the road took me. As I crossed into Wyandotte County, I got ecstatic! I hadn't been through this part of Ohio in YEARS, but it was just nice to have the open road in front of me and be able to go exploring! I really need to do that more often, it felt REALLY freeing!

I'm driving nb on US 23, thinking that I'd drive up to Findlay and turn back. But then, along the way just north of Upper Sandusky, I made the split second decision to turn off and take another road to see where it was going! This wound up being Rt. 199, which goes past the Wyandot County Aiport, and took me to Carey Ohio. I began thinking that I'd just stay on 199, and head up to Fostoria before turning back. But I missed the turn in Carey and decided to just keep going anyway. Turns out that I was now on 568, which lead to Findlay anyway, so I decided to just head up there.

Just past Carey, I pulled over to take a picture of a vanalized billboard. You've gotta love bored people in small town Ohio!




So I continue down 568 into Findlay. This town reminds me severely of Marion, and Portsmouth, and even though it seems more quaint and has a certain charm, I'd go crazy living there. I already am going crazy living in Marion, and I've already done Portsmouth.

When I was in the heart of Findlay, I saw a road I was familiar with, Rt. 37. This road goes south through Richwood and LaRue, so I decided to take this road to get home, as I'd never driven that stretch of Rt. 37. Just after turning on the road, I stopped for gas. Adding to the charm of this typical small-town-in-Ohio town as the culture I encountered at the gas station. I saw a scraggly blonde woman in her early 20's surrounded by 3-4 kids that couldn't have been older than 5, and she was talking to her friend. I heard her say to her friend "....and I missed a court date that I didn't even know that I HAD?!?!?" - Ah, gotta love small town Ohio!

So I snapped one more photo before embarking out of Findlay, this one was of me looking at downtown from my drivers side mirror. Nothing special, but I thought I'd share.



So I continued on my drive down 37. I was thinking originally of driving down to Bellefountaine, but decided to just find my way back home instead. But somehow I missed a turn on my way and I found myself on Rt. 68 heading south instead of Rt. 37. This was still cool, cause I'd never been there before. I noticed that Rt. 68 ran into Kenton, which connected to Marion via Rt. 309. So that was my plan of action. The drive from that point was relatively uneventful, but it was just nice to be on the road and experience the thrill of being behind the wheel with miles ahead of me. I honestly feel a lot better having had the chance to get out of my routine and do this for myself, even though it was a senseless waste of fossil fuels. I'm looking forward to doing it again!