While I’m on the road I’ve asked two of my favourite bloggers to help fill in for me, and today I’d like to introduce you to Mandy from KnowingTheDifference.com. Mandy’s blog is beautifully self searching and reflective, full of small town summers, concerts and bonfires – the perfect remedy for hot city summers.

When Kyla first started sharing details of her road trip with me, it evoked my own fond memories of one special road trip.

In the late winter months of sophomore year of college, a few friends and I sat around a dorm room discussing our non-existent spring break plans for the following week. We were heading home due to lack of funds necessary to take some elaborate trip to a warm sunny destination like Mexico or Florida. Somewhere in the middle of night between procrastinating for a final and writing a paper, the three of us plotted a getaway that involved nothing more than some clothes, a cooler, and some random maps printed off the internet.

We had decided to take a road trip to no where, figuring that we could just hit the open road calling relatives and friends along the way to crash on their couches or floors. We had no specific route in mind. No idea of where we would go first. No idea where we would end up. It was thrilling and completely out of character for all three of us, who preferred to know exactly what was going to happen when.

After classes ended, my two friends and I packed up some clothes in duffle bags, stopped at the store to buy a few loaves of bread, some lunch meat, and peanut butter and were on our way. We had little money, no clear directions except some random state maps, and the wide open road ahead of us. Running off of nothing but caffeinated beverages and pure adrenaline, we decided to drive east toward the beach so we could watch the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean. We were 19 years old, completely free, and on no one’s schedule but our own. The trip involved lots of singing at the top of our lungs, philosophical discussions (or as philosophical as one can get when one is 19), and moments of silence just enjoying the feeling of escaping our small college campus for a time. Our only plan for the moment was to keep driving east until we literally ran into the water. We made it to the shore and witnessed a spectacular sunrise. The weather was chilly, the water too cold to dip a toe into, but we spent the day at the beach just walking along the sand and occasionally ducking into little shops that happened to be open.

The three of us lived only for the moment in front of us, no worry or concern of where we would go next or even where we would sleep that night, we just trusted it would work out. It was seven days filled with spontaneity which was a huge change from how we lived our day to day lives. If when driving along we saw something interesting we stopped. If we didn’t we kept going. Our travels took us in a broad circle through several states from the beach into the mountains and back again. Twice when we found ourselves in the middle of no where, too far between friendly couches and floors, we slept in the car. We ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. We saw some interesting sights. We were more alive than we had ever been which was incredibly exhilarating.

Over the next few years those friendships faded into the background. There were other trips with different friends and new memories made. I’ve never forgotten that road trip though or the feelings that went along with it — feelings of being completely and totally free, just trusting that life would work out, and having total faith in my two friends. Lately I find myself needing more and more to remember those thoughts and feelings.

Do you have a favorite trip where you did something completely spontaneous and lived only for the moment?