After I dropped my daughter off for school this morning, I did something different. I didn't take the left that would take me home, I drove straight ahead. I was questioning what I was doing, but I felt a pull to just
drive. I love driving, the freedom of it. Darting down roads that are familiar and cruising down ones that are new. I knew the road I was headed to and as soon as I became aware of what lay ahead, I
needed to be on that road.
A death trap of gravel and mud with twist and turn and one terribly old and small bridge smack dab in the middle of the run. I longed for it, to see the plumes of dust unfurl behind the car. To hear the droning sound of rubber careening over rock. To feel that pang of guilt because I was in the Jeep and not my ratty Camry, knowing that my husband would be a tad angry, with a touch of admiration, that his wife could maneuver such a winding and dangerous road with finesse.
I wanted to drive fast down it, like I always do. Too fast. Feel that drop between pavement and gravel that always jarred my teeth just a bit. Approach that old metal bridge with child-like glee in my heart because I know if you go over it too fast, your car will leave the ground for just a moment. In that moment, you feel nothing. Not one thing but perhaps freedom. Then when you land, your stomach takes a second to catch back up to the rest of you and
it is glorious.
I know the deep curve where the gravel is thick. I know the dips where the mud can grab you like a monster in the night. I wanted to feel the Jeep swing and curve beneath me. I wanted to settle down that road with abandon and maybe, just maybe, leave some worry with the trailing dust behind me.
But the road is gone. Oh, it's still there, in a matter of ways, but it has been paved. There is no more gravel, no more mud and dust. No more freedom flight over the bridge. When I came to the end of the road, I took the left and headed home.