I’ve taken a lot of road trips in the several decades of my life: family road trips with seven kids, the dog and my parents crammed in a Chevy station wagon on day trips to the beach; rambles with college friends; long drives with our two little girls in their car seats in the back (and sooooo many stops along the way!) to go “home” for Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays; a cross-country excursion in a U-Haul truck with just my younger daughter, returning from four years away at college; “grown-up” field trips to wine country with friends (or just Harry and me); more than a week driving through Spain and Portugal. All of these bring me so many happy memories (even those harrowing 12-hour trips with two impatient toddlers), not just of the sites and scenes along the way and the destinations at the end of the trail but also of those dear ones who traveled with me. As much joy as those journeys brought (and bring) me, I also relish those rarer times when I hit the road for an extended trip all by myself.

I took such a trip a few weeks ago on a lovely Easter Sunday afternoon. Granted, this was no extended, several-night journey to some new and exotic destination. No, the drive took only about four hours and covered a route with which I am very familiar: Interstate 5

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north from my home in Southern Oregon to Portland and my daughter’s home there. However, the novelty (and freedom) of being by myself in the car for several hours with just my thoughts and the radio for company made this a pleasurable and rejuvenating experience. It didn’t hurt, either, that traffic was light (few big rigs on the road), the weather beautiful and the natural world bursting with new life.

Of course, every road trip requires a few essentials: sustenance (in the way of beverages and snacks, both healthy and not-so-much) and some good tunes. I have to admit to being somewhat lazy as regards the latter. My daughters are great at creating road trip playlists, and I’m happy to go with theirs when driving with them. (They, thankfully, keep me apprised of new artists and great music.) On my own,  I’m usually happy with a few SiriusXM stations or CDs of favorite artists. I don’t listen to audiobooks or podcasts when driving (or, hardly, ever), so it’s music . . . or nothing. The world is so busy, and there is always so much demanding my attention that it is bliss to turn it all off and just drive and think.

So it was on that Sunday drive that I listened to a little music; snacked on chocolate Easter eggs and grapes; drove with the windows cracked a bit to let in the sweet, blossom-scented air; and let my mind wander where it wished. Outside, forested mountain passes gave way to the Willamette Valley, burgeoning with multitudinous shades of green. Hazelnut orchards boasted nearly full-grown leaves

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while gray grape vines barely suggested lush growth to come in light blurs of green.

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Huge fields on either side of the freeway gleamed with the bright yellow of wild mustard, and grassy pastures nurtured flocks of snowy sheep and lambs.

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I arrived in Portland late that afternoon, eager to see my girls and thoroughly rejuvenated by my solitary — but not lonely — road trip.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor