I woke up last week with a feeling of dread. I had to drive 20 minutes to work and I didn't feel like it.
I got in the car and I put myself on mental auto pilot.
Now, don't get me wrong because I love my job, but on this morning, the drive in felt like a bit of a drudge.
My heart skipped a beat however when I thought of the driving holiday ahead. And I couldn't escape the irony of why a 5000km journey seemed so much more palatable than a 10km journey.
I turned my headlights on to get to work and realised that when we leave at 5am for the first 10-hour day of our lengthy drive to Adelaide, I would be doing the same. The difference is that I would be doing it with a song in my heart, looking forward to the country roads and the sights that lay attractively ahead.
This holiday isa taking us to Adelaide via Dubbo and Broken Hill and coming home along the Great Ocean Road, through Hanging Rock (there to visit the graves of my father's grandparents) and through country Victoria. My husband was planning a drive along the Bathurst road (preferably not at 200km per hour).
What brought us on the journey was a friend's 70th birthday party. What could have been three days didn't need to be three weeks given the fact that we could have flown, but when you are toting up 70 years, time is on your side and generally also on the side of your friends. Our friends sent us an itinerary of our stay, which included several wineries (suddenly my husband was happy to have a car boot) and a visit to the largest Buddha in the southern hemisphere (who knew?).
Scary as it is that I have friends celebrating zero birthdays with seven in the front, this is one of the few that hasn't added several decades to the celebration. For example, one friend is collectively celebrating his 90th with his daughter (he's 60 and she's turning 30 the next day) come the end of October. And my own dear husband and daughter will celebrate their 100th (he turning 70 and she 30 an exact month later) next year.
When you are talking big numbers like that a few thousand kilometres doesn't seem like anything at all.
- Linda Muller
