The slow, meandering road trip

I developed a love for road trips when I turned 30. My ex and I took a classic California road trip to celebrate our 30th birthdays, a round trip from San Francisco via Lake Tahoe, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and the classic route 101 back to San Francisco. I loved the freedom to keep moving but with no rush, to take our time, enjoy the incredible scenery in that part of the world and pull over whenever we saw something that looked interesting.

For me it is a great example of slow living through travel. It really encourages you to be present where you are at that moment, really look at your surroundings and stop (literally) to enjoy what is there.

This love for road trips continued through Norway, Italy and another US road trip through Nevada, Utah and Arizona.

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But when my marriage ended, unexpectedly last year I thought I had lost this way of travelling for the time being. Whilst I planned every inch of these trips, they had always involved my ex doing the majority of the driving. And, being honest, a big part of me questioned the safety of doing a road trip as a solo female traveller.

Over the last year, post separation I have been slowly re-building my confidence more generally and even went on my first ever solo holiday last September to Tenerife for a few days in the sunshine.

This year I wanted to get back to my love of the road trip. I had always dreamed of visiting New England, USA in the autumn to see all of the fall colours and experience the romantic, Nancy Meyers-esque towns along the coast. But before I ventured into a road trip driving on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road in a whole other country I thought it best to try a solo road trip in England, in my own car first!

In August I took a long, meandering journey home from Aviemore, Scotland back to London. Taking 3 days to travel 500 miles I made a conscious effort to visit new places along the route, take time to stop and walk in nature and visit some of the places I have been meaning to explore more but never get around to.

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I had such a great time but before I set off I had a whole set of worries and anxieties. Would I get lonely? Could I really do all that driving by myself? Was it safe? Could I really go for walks by myself? Would I get bored?

Turns out, after nearly a year and half of being single I have learned to love my own company. I’ve developed a level of confidence that past me could only have dreamed of, going for walks to waterfalls, eating in a restaurant by myself, having chats with independent shop owners and driving all that way, knowing I could stop whenever I needed to. And the best bit about road trips is you don’t have time to get bored because you’re moving onto the next thing soon anyway so you can just enjoy the moment and move onto the next.

So with that new found confidence and confirmation that I did still enjoy road trips by myself I booked a solo road trip from Boston through New Hampshire and Maine. I’ve just returned from that trip and I’ll share more soon, but I can confirm that solo road trips are just as much fun. In fact, being by yourself really allows you to be entirely present in what you’re doing, focus on the things that bring you joy, take everything at your own pace and change your plans whenever you feel like it.

Most importantly, I am so incredibly proud of myself for doing this road trip on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car and in a foreign country. And New Hampshire and Maine turned out to be as beautiful as I imagined they would be.

If you’ve ever thought about doing a road trip, I cannot recommend them enough and turns out they might be even better on your own!

Samantha x

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