<p>Among the many pleasures I enjoyed on my recent trip home, one provided much-needed rejuvenation of a sort that I used to enjoy regularly but haven't in quite some time: ROAD TRIP. A road trip long enough to be a trip but short enough not to be completely exhausting.* I was so looking forward to all the driving this trip would entail. Driving fast, singing loudly along with songs I like is good for my soul. The iPod was loaded with lots of good music and a few outstanding (to me, anyway) playlists, and I couldn't wait to give it all a spin (so to speak).</p>

<p>Because we flew into Nashville, and our first destination was Lenoir City in East Tennessee, we hit the road right away. This leg of the journey wasn't as enjoyable as it might have been because the rental company was out of "economy" vehicles, and I was forced to drive a HUGE Ford Explorer. The Explorer did have the all-important aux jack for the iPod, but I did not at all enjoy driving it. </p>

<p>Fortunately, when we returned to Nashville so that J. could catch his flight back to Utah, I was able to trade in the Explorer and get a much smaller car for the remainder of my trip. Unfortunately, the new smaller car did not have the all-important aux jack, which put something of a crimp in my plans. Fortunately, I spent the night in Nashville with <a href="laurit.wordpress.com" target="blank">Lauri</a>, and she set me up with some cds for the drive to Alabama. In addition to giving me some blanks on which to burn my outstanding playlists, she compiled a four-disc collection that she titled "Swolded Up" (after my toe, which was all swolded up from a painful encounter with her bathroom scale). </p>

<p>Let it be known: Lauri Radio rocks! "Swolded Up" is a great mix&mdash;I enjoyed equally the familiar songs and the ones new to me. When Tom Petty's "American Girl" came up just as I saw the last of Nashville in the rearview mirror, I experienced a moment of pure transcendence. I listened to the first two discs on the way to Tuscaloosa, interspersing my "Girls With Guitars" mix and a Dan Fogelberg album that I hadn't listened to in years (<em>Souvenirs</em>).** I saved the third and fourth discs for the drive back to Nashville. Bliss. There's just nothing like speeding down the highway with the windows down, music blasting, singing at the top of your lungs.*** It's a beautiful thing.</p> 

<p class="note">*We've taken a few road trips since moving to Utah, but they have been long&mdash;nine or more hours of driving. Enjoyable, yes, but not what I would call rejuvenating.</p>

<p class="note">**When I was younger, in college, and surrounded by alterna-boys, I got so much shit for liking Dan Fogelberg that I stopped listening to him altogether. As a wise woman of 38, grown past the stage of alterna-kid posturing (sort of), I have been able listen to Dan Fogelberg once again (impervious as I am to my husband's ridicule). I'm all about taking the guilt out of "guilty pleasures." Music resonates for a wide array of reasons, not all of them based on qualities inherent in the work itself.</p>

<p class="note">***Works best, perhaps, as a solitary joy. I've found, over the years, that traveling companions&mdash;particularly males of the significant other persuasion&mdash;tend to become annoyed with incessant singing along and eventually will growl things like, "Can't we just LISTEN to the music?!" The answer, my friend, is NO!</p>