Y’all … the Girls’ Road Trip of 2023 is quickly approaching. It took quite a bit of scheduling and tinkering with the calendar this year to make it happen, between my work schedule and my daughter’s work and life schedule. We were supposed to leave yesterday, but that didn’t work out due to a conflict on my daughter’s side. Then, we were supposed to leave this morning, but that didn’t work out due to expected terrible weather along our route, as well as multiple train delays yesterday that delayed my daughter’s arrival home by almost 5 hours. It has been a time of shuffling schedules and canceling hotel rooms and rebooking hotel rooms and rearranging the dog sitter. Basically, it’s been a “thing”.
But now, the Girls’ Road Trip of 2023 is ON. That’s right, my friends, it is happening. We are in the midst of finishing up the things we need to do at home today. We are packing all the things for ourselves and the cat. We are loading the car. And, tomorrow morning, we will be off on our great adventure — into the wilds of … well, Missouri and Arkansas. Wild times, indeed!
There is something exciting but, also, a little bit terrifying about embarking on such a long road trip. It’s liberating, in a way — you know, that whole feeling of having the freedom of the open road and the idea that a new adventure is just waiting around the bend. For much of our drive, there actually will be “open road”. Especially once we hit Texas, there will be back roads where we seldom see another car. But for larger parts, the “freedom” of that open road will be shared with a lot of other traffic, making it not all that “free”, after all. But, I think a big part of that freedom happens in our very own car. We will sing songs to the playlist on our phones. We will laugh and tell goofy stories. We will talk about Life Things, both the big things and the small things. We will just “be”, without the need to report to any certain person at any certain time. Now that I am back working (and working in a job where I consistently carry a heavy workload and can’t truly take paid time off), I treasure these little bits of feeling like I don’t have to report in anywhere.
I’m not going to lie, though. there is something very bittersweet about this year’s trip. I’m pretty sure this will be the last true “Girls’ Road Trip” we take. Starting next year, my daughter will be staying in Michigan over the Summer. I hope we will still be able to make this trip together at some point next Summer. But, if we do, we will have to fly (probably separately). After all, my sweet daughter is a grown woman now. She has her own life and her own ideas about how she wants to spend her time. And that’s okay! Don’t get me wrong — As a Mama, that’s obviously my ultimate goal. I want her to have her own life, and I want her to do her own things in her own time. At the same time, change is hard. Letting go is hard. I hope I can soak in every moment of this year’s trip — every funny story, every goofy memory, every song sung — and store it away for later. So that, as she moves into her own life, I can still carry her beautiful voice and the sound of her laughter in my heart and my head.
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