Driving An Open Road On A Beautiful Spring Day...

I think it was Gale Snoats who said, "I love to drive." As I get older, I don't know if I like driving more than I once did--I'm not finding myself behind the wheel very much these days. I take public transportation to work and we don't really go anywhere anymore. But as I drove home today from a weekend dance competition in the great Gem State to the north, I realized, there's something therapeutic about being on an open road.

If you want open roads, Idaho and Northern Utah present many suitable options for you. Not a lot of tight turns, so if you buy a really expensive foreign automobile that goes really fast, you'll go really fast pretty much in a straight line. Of course, going really fast, you may not see the deer and (more importantly...) elk that might cross your path. Luckily, we saw neither, but the state of Idaho made sure to remind us every few miles that deer and elk live in the area, too.

As an kid driving to Idaho Falls, then Rexburg, then Driggs was an annual event. I keep telling my kids (probably too much...) about how it was when I was a kid and how the interstate system had not yet been completed. That's an odd thought, even for me. But it's true. As I grew, sections of I-15 were finished until finally a car can go from Salt Lake City to Idaho Falls in under three hours and you don't even have to break any speed limits to do it.

As I drove I snapped a few pictures. At no time we were in danger, though some may disagree with that. I was much less distracted than texters with whom I share the road. Although, one of the most amazing things I ever saw while driving occurred on that very stretch of Interstate 15 many years ago. On one of our trips north we passed a smaller import. As we passed I noticed the driver doing something not normally associated wth driving. What was the driver doing? She was reading a paperback novel.

Today's trip was short and thanks to some expensive upgrades to the family chariot, the drive was very smooth. I wouldn't want to make that drive everyday, but on this warming beautiful spring day, it was great.