WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge  – I’d Rather Be…  On the Road Again

A few years ago, I suffered from a serious depressive episode – you know, the kind where you just want to run away.  I’m not ashamed that even though I was nearly 50 years old at the time, I still needed my mum.  So I packed my bags and headed out on the road for the 1,500 kilometre trip north to mum’s.  

As you can imagine, this (a severely-depressed Type 1 diabetic prone to hypoglycemia, travelling alone on country backroads) caused my family quite some consternation.  So a compromise was reached.  I would drive north, and my love would fly up and we would drive home together.  I’ve always loved road trips, but something changed in me on that trip.  I was free.  The sun and the countryside re-charged me.  I put on my CDs and sang my heart out.  And when I had to stop for roadworks, I whipped out my thermos and enjoyed a cup of tea.  So now, when I feel a bit down, I take to the road.  Here are a few photos I’ve taken from my car on various road trips.

canola2

anothercoastroad2

snowyroad2

wideload2.jpg

coalseamgas2

yellowflowers2

makeaonroad

As the days shorten, I can feel a subtle change in my mood.  The road is calling.  I won’t leave just yet.  I’ll wait until I am well and truly in Winter’s clutches.  Then I’ll head north.  To mum and the sun.

Sing with me….

Comments welcome.  Can’t find the Comments Section?  Keep scrolling.

Ciao,
Tracy

PS.  I’ve just realised I should have used the Willie Nelson song.  You know the one.  No matter, just google it and have another singalong.

 

30 thoughts on “On the Road Again”

  4. Nothing like a road trip….setting off, feeling free, casting off everyday worries and woes. One coming up for us next month!

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      1. Victoria. We haven’t completely decided yet, but I’m absolutely determined to go to Lambley gardens and nursery, so photos coming up of that!

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  5. When I was in high school, I once waited until I heard my parents go to bed, got up out of bed, dressed, found the car keys in the mud room, backed out of the garage and drove fast for 100 miles west, then turned around and drove home again and was in bed by the time my dad woke up at 6. They never knew. I didn’t know what my plans were at the time, just new I needed to drive somewhere fast, by myself. Then some other need brought me home again. I had forgotten this until reading your piece. I lived on the prairie on a straight flat road that led to the mountains 150 miles away. They were what I was headed for and although I didn’t make it to them that time, years later I lived in the mountains for 15 years–taking lots of road trips out of them in so many different directions.

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      1. They never knew. A few years later, I emigrated to Australia, traveled through S.E. Asia and ended up in Ethiopia for 1 1/2 years.. during the beginning of the revolution. I think that was when they worried.

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  6. I totally get your feeling of freedom. I love doing a road trip by myself and playing those old CDs and letting my voice rip out. It takes me back to my youth when life was carefree and we’d travel the coast roads. Some days I think I could just keep on driving. Enjoy your trip north when the time comes to escape winter. That too I can totally understand which is why we also moved north (but permanently). Hope your spirits soar…..

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  9. I think spending time with your mother and a road trip sound like the perfect cure for depression. We never outgrow the need for our mothers, and there is something wonderfully freeing about driving by ourselves….

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  10. Oh I do hear you Tracy and even now when I say I am settled and happy to stay home I read a post like this and I can feel all the urge for a l-o-n-g roadtrip surfacing (don’t tell Jack !!!)

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