Key To The Highway

The funny things in life you write about.

I was chatting with a friend today and somehow the phrase "taking a new road without a map" came up. For some reason, it stuck. I got to pondering how many times in my life I took a new road without a map. Now, before that, on trips, I used to be the map kid. With my trusty always perfectly folded up guide to places I had never seen, I could tell you the next turn was approximately 6 miles down the road. Insufferable in the car.

A new road without a map?
Wow, a lot to digest in one setting. I can make this career related and then get personal later.

I'll say it was early on.
12ish, putting together my little radio station in my bedroom,in the middle of nowhere, complete with a 5 inch reel to reel, a cassette player that had an AM radio built in, a record player and a cheap microphone. I cursed the DJ that talked all the way to the beginning of the vocals because damn it, that was my job. What fun, but quite eccentric for a kid reading Encyclopedia Brown books as fast as they could make them. I was so enamored with the radio. Every Thursday night the local station would count down the top 30 songs of the week and I'd write them down. Every Thursday night. I remember getting mad that "I Got You Babe" by Sonny and Cher kept "Satisfaction" out of the number one spot. I was furious. What to do from here? I was enthralled with radio at its best, certainly a new road but no map.

When I graduated from radio school it was ok, what now?
Where do I go to follow this dream that has so far cost me my marriage, my relationship with my father and overall great consternation among the close knits? "The boy has lost his mind." "Why on earth would he leave a great job in the foundry? He could retire there." It sure seemed like I had lost my mind. I walked out the door to no job, but dang it I had a tape. The map appeared about two weeks into the search when I strong armed my way on the air at the local country station. Now, not only did I have a tape, but I had a tape of me actually being on air. That turned into my first full time job and then three years later...the map disappeared again.

At this point in the journey, I was half asleep when I got the call.
All I wanted was to sleep. Getting up at 3:45 made sure I slept in shifts; 4 to 5 hours at night, two to three in the afternoon if at all possible. I was groggy as someone named Max Floyd from Kansas City said something about him not knowing how my tape (see?) ended up on his desk, but he had an opening at the station. "What station? Who? Is this a joke?" No joke, three weeks later, I was sitting in the drivers seat of a UHaul trailer with a garbage bag of home grown that I almost went through by the time I got all the way through Iowa bound for the bright lights and the big city, the home of pretty little women and damn it, I'm gonna get me one. Right before I left for KC, I got cold feet and my dear Aunt Jane almost slapped the shit out of me. "Isn't this what you have spent your life waiting for? Isn't this your dream? Kansas City or Moline? You want the big time or do you want to be comfortable? I think you know your answer" Little did she know the job I left paid more than the job I accepted. I got to KC about 6pm on a Sunday night, knowing no one, or where anything was. All I knew is I had to find the Howard Johnson's downtown.This was a literal interpretation of our subject as I had no map.  It's getting late, I can't find the hotel, the neighborhood is dicey and I'm about ready to call Aunt Jane form a pay phone to tell her exactly what I think. Then, it appeared. The Howard Johnson sign. I checked in, locked my truck, went to my room and cried myself to sleep.  I woke up the next morning anticipating a road without a map.

I've always taken the blue highways whenever possible.
I used to take vacations by pulling a direction out of a hat and just leaving that way. No maps, no deadlines, no worries. As I've gotten older, I've had a bit of wanderlust, I like taking off in new directions and traveling with no map. Whatever that means to you, I know what it means to me.
I wish you many mapless travels.