THE EXHILARATING sensations that one feels during their very first road trip ever (or any significant journey) is never really lost on anyone. It is a breaking ground of sorts; stepping beyond where one has never walked before. I hope no Star-Trekkie is reading this.
All around, the senses are constantly bombarded by fresh stimuli, sometimes lulling you into a gentle drunken stupor. Yet one is ironically wide-eyed, and in awe over new things. And amusingly enough, they always bring about an almost childlike transformation in anyone.
As for myself, I must have felt that magic a long, long time ago. For other people, like those already dwelling in a kingdom far and farther away, that magic might have long died, its novelty expired.
Yet for those who have stayed put, their few visits beyond, to these magical fringes, still hold a little bit enticement; with reminiscences of them more than often replayed without let-up, making them still good as new each time. I for one, will never forget our five-country tour of Europe in 92, with a total of 43 stage performances. At the time, I had dutifully written a daily journal which included among others, what I felt that day.
With all the time that has passed, you would think I might have already forgotten each entry, especially now that I seem to have misplaced that notebook. The details perhaps yes, but the distinct smell of coffee shops there amongst other sensations, such as seeing the Dom in Cologne for the first time, taking long train rides under tunnels, and riding cable cars up St. Johan in the Tyrol mountains, these are still like they happened only yesterday. With many other memories likewise as fresh as dew.
At the moment, lost in these thoughts, I am again in a similar but downsized journey. I’m accompanying my son to another city so he could stay awhile and visit with relatives.
I’m thinking, how many times have I traveled these roads, and trying to recall how they looked like back in the early days when I first traversed them in my youth. Wherein lies the magic, I’m trying hard to remember. Then, visually in my mind, I’m starting to picture a slow and morphed sequence where old mud roads and tiny wayside stalls are gradually transformed into wider highways with zooming vehicles and a long line of buildings by the roadside teeming with people. Just the same, I am happy to note, there is a lot of magic in that.
