OH HOW I LOVE ROADTRIPS!

It is funny to think that I had road trips in my tricycle days but that's exactly what they were.  I was given groceries to deliver to my great aunt at the end of the block. The hedges were all different as I drove along and that's how I knew her house from others.

My legs grew longer and I can remember the trip to purchase my bicycle.  It was my pride and joy. During summers I took a lunch and headed out to the country where the bluebell fields grew, up and down the one lane dirt roads.  I only had to be home for supper.  During the other seasons I opted for the woods and was surrounded by glorious leaves. 

At age 16 I was given a car.  The only one in the household.  It got me to school and factory work after school or school activities.  I did all the household errands.  I threw my school books in the back seat til morning before classes.  My grades fell and my love affair with road trips grew by leaps and bounds.

A few years later my friend said she had a real stud for me to meet, I yelled ROAD TRIP!  I took one look, agreed and later realized he was a road trip lover himself.  How perfect was that?  For almost 20 years we moved about the country. Ten times we moved from one end of the states to the other and there were countless road trips, all of which I loved.

People would ask where was my favorite place to live and truthfully I had no favorite.  Back east there were all those wonderful trees that made roads so mysterious you just yearned to see what was around the next corner and over the next hill.  Out west there were blue skies, rocks you could actually see, and roads to drive forever and be alone.  Our country has the best diversity for those who choose to see it.

My road trips changed during my first 5-year self ban of gambling in my state.  I realized I could go over the border in several directions and gamble. To read more of my gambling history, see my post of Nov. 25th 2013.  The 4 hour road trips to gamble out of state began and quickly escalated. These were not leisurely trips.  

As a compulsive gambler, once I had the trigger, the money, the plan and the time, little could stop the cycle. So my brain would recognize the trigger and speed ahead to the goal.  The 4 hour delay to reach the goal was so long but remember, I loved driving and road trips. Still, I  would do everything to make the time pass quickly. Music and singing, planning which machines I would play, which casino I would step into, mileage games.

If it had not been for cruise control I would have had a zillion tickets. There's a scene in the movie "you've got mail" when Meg Ryan leaves her flat to meet her internet friend. She starts down the sidewalk normal, then starts skip-walking, then makes herself slow down, then can't wait and skip-walks again. She just can't wait.

That's the feeling I experienced during every trip out of state to gamble.  What danger I put myself into with the speed and passing other trucks and cars.  Being a compulsive gambler puts us in the danger seat every time even if it's just a walk through the parking lot, because we are preoccupied.