Single Rider

It all started back in high school when I got my first set of wheels. A 1969 Chevy Malibu. A borderline muscle car (if it had a bigger engine) it was a rather butch vehicle for me, and I liked that. I also like that it was a hand-me-down from my dad and sort of symbolized a bit of a passing of the torch or the extension of a legacy. More importantly, to me, it symbolized freedom.

If I wanted to go somewhere, it was up to me. Hop in the car, and go as far as a tank of gas would allow. During the summer between my junior and senior year in high school, I could most often be found tearing up the deserted roads in the rolling hills east of town. The speedometer went up to 120-mph and I liked to see how close I could get to the century mark on the flat straightaways before having to brake hard before the next series of hills. Cranking the likes of Jesus Jones, Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch, C+C Music Factory, Vanilla Ice, Seal, Roxette, Madonna, Wilson Phillips, Depeche Mode, B-52s, Janet Jackson, and Amy Grant (yes, I had a varied taste in music, still do) on KWOD 106.5 FM during my long solo flights of back-roads fancy left me with a high, a sensation I find myself longing for whenever I'm feeling tied down. If I was lucky, "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News would hit the airwaves and I'd be transported into a state or nirvana pretending I was in a flux capacitor equipped DeLorean back in good ol' 1985. (Hey, I'm a geek, what did you expect?)

Back then, those joyrides-for-one were a time of self discovery. Thinking about the past, the future, and how to just keep making the most of the present. I had come to terms with the part of me that I had to keep secret, so getting away from everyone, even for a couple of hours, allowed me to drop character and just be me with me. Those were good times. Necessary times. And affordable times with gas under a buck a gallon.

I've never outgrown that need for solitary adventure. Throughout my varied collegiate endeavors, I would often find that the perfect study break to mentally refocus was usually a brisk drive on Silverado Trail through the vineyards of the Napa Valley (29 was always too crowded) or Hwy 1 around Half Moon Bay and points south. Heck, sometimes a good get-myself-lost-in-the-city drive would do the trick.

My first major trip by myself happened in the latter half of the 90s when I was given the opportunity to visit South Korea for a week, all expenses paid. There are so many great stories to tell — including slow dancing with and being serenaded by a woman at the same time — but such tales are for another time.

The next major solo trip was for what I consider my first "real" vacation, meaning that I was working a real job, making real money, and was using real vacation days to take my next globetrotting trip. Where did I end up? The Jamacian Outback. Click on the link if you've never heard of it. It is to this date probably my most daring and relaxing getaway ever. And yes, it too is filled with plenty of stories that will one day be told here.

The last big adventure-for-one was more than four years ago and I've got the itch to fly solo again. This time, though, I've got a few more shackles tying me down (mortgage, work, inflation) that are making it challenging to take the trip I want need to take. Not willing to let those things stop me, I've decided — and I know I'm tempting fate by even mentioning it here; the cookie told me not to — to take a shorter, more realistic road-trip down to SoCal and hit up 3 theme parks in three days. I've priced it all out and provided I can get those days off, it looks like it will be a wicked fun and still affordable thrill-seeking good time. Which brings us back to the title of this post. For those of you not familiar with the term, "single rider" refers traveling by themselves who is allowed to skip ahead the ride's queue and fill any open seat on the ride. It's an amazing time saver! The downside is that you're not able to share the thrill and experience with anyone you know in the moment, which depending on your outlook might not be so bad after all.

There you have it. I'm embracing my Single Rider status because I realized that at the end of the day, you're only going to have the trip you're looking for by going it alone. And if you want to share the memories with someone else, bring a camera and post your pics on Flickr. You won't have to buy the camera a seat on the plane and it won't work itself into a gay rage about how loudly you snore.