Sometimes, You Just Need a Road Trip

I've been unplugged for a while--no e-mail, no blog entries, no message board activity, no cyberworld suck-in in general. Reason? I gave in to the urge to hook up the horse trailer and head out on a road trip. I left the laptop home on purpose. Sometimes, I just have to stop living in the virtual horse world, as it appears on-screen, in favor of feeding the brain in a different fashion.

This time, part of my excuse for unshackling myself from my MacIntosh was to deliver a weanling filly, born a few miles from my home in Idaho, to my brother in eastern North Dakota. The Rockies lie between here and there, and the pre-snow window for crossing the mountain passes was about to close. (While I love most things about making a crosscountry trek with horse in tow, chaining up tires at the base of a mountain isn't one of them.) I suppose you could say that I traded one variety of deadlines--the kind I deal with nearly every day as a journalist--for another kind. The first kind is draining. The second kind is somehow exhilirating. Must be due to its connection to the natural world, a place that tends to recede to life's background when computer work pays the bills.

A few things worth noting, now that I'm back from a round trip of almost 2,500 miles (most of them spent crossing Montana):

* Satellite radio's well worth the monthly subscription fee. Now that I have it in my diesel dually, I don't know how I ever drove across places like Montana without it.

* When you think you may need overnight stabling, www.horsetrip.com is a great resource to investigate before you leave home. The site's organized by state, easy to use, and loaded with valuable info.

* Never leave home, horse in trailer, without a well-stocked vet kit and an equine first-aid manual. I didn't need these items on this trip, but you just don't know when they might be needed, and they provide great peace of mind just by being in your rig.

* The best road reports come from truckers who've just crossed the country you're about to head into. When you need to refuel, especially when weather up ahead looks iffy, do it at a major truck stop instead of a fuel-and-junk-food station. If the pro drivers have pulled over to wait out the weather, let their action be your guide.

* Enjoy the ride. Sure, it's great to get to where you're going, but the mile-by-mile process has value, too. The hurry-hurry-hurry aspect of contemporary life will still be there when you get home.