Living on Writer's Block

Daily writing prompt

You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

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As a Daily Writing Prompt, I’ve been asked what vehicle I would choose on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

Actually, I’ve done this once, and it was the most wonderful trip I have ever taken. We drove across the country to the opposite coast to visit our family, and on the way, we saw a lot of beautiful and amazing things — something that wouldn’t be possible in a plane or a train. A bus, possibly, but it would just be difficult to figure out the bus schedules and work in sightseeing along with it. A cross-country biking trip sounds like it might be fun, but you can’t sleep while someone else pedals on a bike even if it’s a tandem. A car is the way to go.

My siblings and I would ride in the back, listening to audiobooks, podcasts, and music while we watched the natural television out our windows as the scenery rolled by. Cities changed to fields changed to rocky cliffs changed to rivers changed to forests changed to cities again. We saw God’s glorious creation punctuated by the glorious creation of His finest work, man, surrounded and overwhelmed and beautifully outshone by the nature that surrounded the concrete and glass and chrome of man’s greatest feats.

God created a beautiful world full of beautiful (if broken) things, and that’s why I say that ‘Creating is Everything.’ God though it was important enough. And perhaps, for Him, we’re just a dust speck floating by in a parade of angels and principalities, but He still saw fit to make us; we should imitate that. And the best way to imitate a great creator is to look at his creation; the best way to imitate the Creator is to look at His Creation. And what better way to do it than through the windows of a moving car, sprinkled liberally with stops in beautiful places like Arches National Park in Utah, or Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, or Pensacola Beach in Florida (ignoring the consumerism and tourism industry there), or the Gettysburg fields and Devil’s Den in Pennsylvania?

These were beautiful places. I love to talk about them. And just because we took a car, we were able to see them. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.