Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Random Excursions

I came across a post on Boingboing that led me here.

I quite like this idea. I've always liked taking road trips and especially visiting new places.

Trips these days seem to be "destination trips" - you drive via the quickest route, usually a highway, to get to your destination fastest. Not very scenic.

I live in Toronto, yet I find that I don't know as many of the towns surrounding the city as I'd like.

Coming back from Dan's wedding reception last (?) summer, I avoided the highway and instead took a more scenic route (yet still on a major road so that I wouldn't have to twist and turn too much - I still had to get home!) which led me through St. Thomas, Ontario, a place I'd never been. It's a nice little town, which I now know is the site of the unfortunate passing of Jumbo the elephant, who was struck by a locomotive while visiting with the circus. A tour of the town would be incomplete without a visit to the statue of Jumbo. It may not have been the quickest way back from Windsor, but it was certainly more enjoyable and pleasant than the 401.

As the post says, I think establishing rules would be important. I like the idea of not being allowed to take the same stretch of road twice, but I'm not sure about following a direction beyond what the road allows (see the bit about using the GPS). Seems to me that when a road ends, that's when you use the die. But if you end up on a major road, how else do you determine when to roll again? Do you have a time limit for travel between rolls? Maybe you roll whenever you see a ________?

I think I'll come up with a plan and hopefully I'll be able to execute it sometime in the near future. (I'd have to rent a car!)

I think putting your trip in the hands of fate could be fun.

3 comments:

Michelle Sullivan said...

There's nothing I like better on a roadtrip than getting lost. I do it as often as humanly possible, taking random turns here and there.

Otherwise, how would I ever have known that Mystic, Quebec, has a fantastic cemetery?

I tell ya, I wouldn't have. But I do now.

Michelle-the-cemetery-freak

PS said...

You ARE a cemetery freak! What's up wit dat?

And you do get lost quite often when you drive, I know - whether you intend to or not! :P

You know, Mystic isn't even in Google maps? I can figure out where it OUGHT to be (near Bedford), but it simply isn't there. Now that's a mystical town.

Alison Jutzi said...

Ooh, adventure! Count me in! I'll pack the sandwiches and cookies, you drive the car.