Recently I traveled to an out-of-town wedding, an event where the daughter of family friends (and who has also become a friend in her adulthood) married the man she has been with for several years. The location of the wedding was not far away, but the timing of the day necessitated an overnight stay at a hotel only a couple of miles from the venue. Because the distance to the wedding site was manageable, and time was not at a premium, I was able to travel to and from the location on my preferred routes, “blue highways”.
For those of a certain age, remember back to a period of travel where many chain gas stations freely gave away state and local maps to travelers. I remember looking at them in my younger days, and sometimes even asking my father to get me one if he went inside the station to pay. On those maps, the Federal interstate highway system was shown in red while other Federal and state roads were shown in blue and the minor roads were shown in grey. Often, those roads marked in blue ran parallel to the interstate highways as they had been the primary travel routes in the years before the interstate system was completed. Those roads marked in blue have always been my preferred travel routes and I will regularly chose to drive them when time or distance is not critical.
I first became aware of the term “blue highways” when I read a book by that name written by a college English professor named William Least Heat Moon. The book details a trip by Moon across the USA in a van, primarily driving on the secondary Federal and state routes while stopping along the trip whenever a town, sign, or other opportunity struck his fancy. It has become a beloved book in my personal library and I have read the book at least once every year since I first acquired it in the the mid-1980’s. I have often described my preferred style of travel as “meandering” and the possibility of serendipitous encounters that can happen when traveling on those secondary roads befits my sensibilities.
There were some choices made for both the drive to the site and the drive home that allowed for travel on both a Federal numbered road and a state numbered road. Each of these roads were reasonably direct to the respective destinations, with the state road being somewhat more circuitous. The two days of the drive were spectacularly sunny with brilliant blue skies and soft puffy clouds. The morning of my departure was slightly foggy which provided some fantastic shrouded views of the hills and valleys along my route. A few maple and oak trees along my routes were beginning to change into their fall colors but the predominant color was green with a wide variation.
Each time I make a trip, I evaluate whether I am able to drive my preferred secondary roads, or if I must give in to the demands of time and distance to travel on the interstate highways. Occasionally I can choose to drive on both so that I can enjoy some of the scenery while still traveling the necessary distance in the time allotted. I would encourage anyone to read “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat Moon and consider adapting some of the ideas of traveling on those “blue highways” on a trip. It may change your attitude toward travel and allow you to experience more joy in the journey.