The Road...

The road is my friend.

Sometimes there are days when I think that the road is the only friend I have. No matter how I feel, how grumpy I am, or how the weather is, the road is always there...leading me to another town or another state. He is always showing me something new, and he always makes me think.

He makes me think of just how lonely he is. Oh yes, the road is lonely. Im out here with him every day, and he talks to me. He has seen death and destruction, grown old and haggard, and been patched more than you can imagine, yet he is always here. He has known millions of people, yet he is still alone.

He has been good and bad to me. You could say that we have a love/hate relationship. He is great to me as he leads me home to the people that I love and long to be with, but he has been a bitch to me as he takes me away from them a few days later.  Those are the times when I hate the sight of him. I despise his different colors and different textures and shapes. I loathe being out with him during those times, but he always seems to take me somewhere or show me something that makes me feel a little better about traveling with him. Besides, he always promises to bring me back to my wife and little girl, and so far he hasn’t lied to me about it.

I’ve seen a lot of things with him. He has shown me the tall palm trees in Hollywood and the short ones in Miami. He has taken me to the Battlefields of Gettysburg, where I could almost hear Abraham Lincoln giving his famous “Emancipation Proclimation”. He has led me to the Mountains of South Dakota where I saw four Presidents etched into the side of one of those mountains at Mt. Rushmore, and felt the chills on my spine as I gazed up at it.

He has taken me to forty eight of the fifty states in this country. I’ve seen the Sun rise over the Atlantic, and the sun set over the Pacific. I’ve been over every mountain range and through every desert.

The road has shown me more beauty than I could ever imagine, but he has never shown me anything as beautiful as my wife and daughter’s faces as he led me to them. He delivers me safely to them and gives me up for days and weeks at a time, with no complaints, and for that I thank him.

I sit and think sometimes as I ride over him that one day soon, I wont be out here as much with him. I long for that day. As much as I love being with him, I know he will understand when I decide that enough is enough and that I just can’t stay with him any longer. I’m sure that it won’t be a sad day for either of us. We have a mutual respect for one another, and we both know that the road will come to an end one day. Until then, though, I think he has some more to show me.

Yep, the road is my friend.