Driving the long way round

I had one of those wonderful moments where I got to spend a little time on a “happy place” this morning, I awoke unreasonably early and did something I’ve not done for a while.

It was still dark out and very little traffic on the freeway, I dropped the top of the car, turned the heaters up and hit Chuckanut Drive. By the time I started the sky to the east was light, but there were still the stars out, a cold, but quite beautiful morning.

I’m not going to talk about speed or time taken, but that 21 miles of beautiful winding road is one of those places that make me happy.

When I was going through chemo and in its aftermath it was a place I could go and no matter how crappy I’d felt, the day got a little better. And this morning it did exactly that.

It’s never going to give total clarity to a problem, but it does help me focus on something else for a little while, which allows me to strip away the extraneous and really emotionally charged stuff, leaving behind what’s really important.

The road is stunning, especially the part between Samish and Larrabee state park. It’s a wonderful drive that’s got a place on my list of “happy places”. Things have changed considerably for me, but I was happy to see the result is still the same. I came away smiling and feeling a little better about myself.

Te rest of the “long way round” drive to work was a rather pleasant drive with the top down, heater on and the CD turned up a little louder than maybe it should have been. I think the grin probably helped.