By Annie Alvira….the much favored offspring of Marcos
My favorite place to be is in the car and driving on an open road. As a kid, road trips with my parents ingrained themselves in the fabric of who I am. As an adult, I still relish looking out the window, exploring somewhere new and different, and dissolving into the silence of the less-populated regions in this country. From Yellowstone to Seattle to Bryce Canyon, and the destinations have never failed to delight and humble; however, it is the journeys that always seem to stand out in my memory. I seldom recall the geysers or the hoodoos as fondly as I remember annoying my parents with my little brother, watching the shadows pass over the painted desert with my fiancé, or listening and singing along to the music on the radio.
Music carves a road trip’s personality. No matter where I have gone, the music I have listened to on the way forms my most vivid recollections of a car ride. To this day, when I hear the drone of Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Possess Your Heart,” I always think of driving through the desert at sunset, on the way to Las Vegas. When I play an Ella Fitzgerald record, I relive the first time I heard her voice while moseying through Seattle with my family. When I sing any song from Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt’s Trio, I picture the vast expanse of grassy fields in Montana and Wyoming, that passed as my dad pressed “Play” on that album.
Most recently, my fiancé and I drove up through Arizona and surveyed southwest Utah’s National Parks. We listened to the likes of Johnny Cash and Connie Smith as we gazed at the russet arcs in Arches National Park and wound around Monument Valley’s bumpy car trail. That country music underscored all the wondrous things we saw, and it reflected the spirit of freedom we felt, so untethered to California’s crowded freeways as we found ourselves.
Music composes the soul of a road trip. A photo album may provide colorful documentation of where you went, but music infuses context. It helps a person remember what they see, what they hear, and what they feel as they free themselves from the efficiency of everyday life: as they take the time to experience what surrounds and stretches ahead on the open road.
Happy Labor Day! What are you listening to this weekend?
