Anyone who has driven highway 401 between Toronto and Montreal knows how mind-numbingly boring the drive can be. There's not a lot to look at. Rest stops are few and far between. It's just you, the yellow line and seemingly endless kilometres of pavement.
And yet, for a boring stretch of highway, I have memories for days of my hours spent on the road.
There was the time my girlfriend and I drove from Montreal to Toronto in her Mum's VW convertible Rabbit (remember those?!). We laughed and sang while flirting with passing cars and trucks as only giggling eighteen-year-old girls can do. We thought we were the coolest!
Accidents on the 401 regularly grind traffic to a halt, and all you can do is put your car in park, turn off the engine and hope the highway reopens quickly. On one such occasion, my husband and I were propositioned by swingers on their way to a nudist park. This was after I had told them I was pregnant! Apparently, that wasn't a deterrent!
Then there was the time our boys watched the Curious George movie I don't know how many times as we drove the 401 en route to Vermont. To this day, I haven't seen the movie but can recite every word.
I've driven in snowstorms, blisteringly hot summer days, brilliantly coloured fall afternoons and white knuckled it through blinding rain. The highway might be at times boring and never-ending, but it is certainly memorable.
A few weeks ago, my husband and I found ourselves driving that long stretch of the 401. It was hot. Like really hot. The kind of hot where there's a wavy mirage on the pavement as far as the eye can see. The further we drove, the hotter it got inside the car. Wait, what?! How? Bit by bit, the car's air conditioning had stopped working, and in our heat-induced haze, we were slow to notice.
Like a slow-to-boil pot, we were red-faced, sweaty and cooking. Unrolling the windows helped. Mind you, it was like holding a hairdryer to our faces, but at least the hot air moved around. We laughed. It was useless to be upset. In that moment, there was nothing we could do.
With the windows rolled down and the music turned up, we let the road carry us forward. Another memorable drive on a boring stretch of highway that perhaps isn’t so boring after all.
Tell me, what have you perceived to be boring that turns out to be quite memorable? I’d love to know.
With gratitude always,
Sarah
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play in the puddles
I sat in my car waiting for the rain to stop. It had been days upon days of humidity, and just as I'd arrived at my destination, the heavens opened. Knowing the storm would likely pass quickly and not wanting to get wet, I was in no hurry to rush inside. As I waited, I watched three young kids without a care in the world jump and dance in the puddles at…
I love your perspective, you can only laugh right?! as navigate ac troubles as a couple. Hair dryer in the face made me lol