Let me get ironic for a second. We romanticize the open road, right? The wind in your hair, the freedom, the zen. But the reality is that an unbroken stretch of interstate is boring as heck. Seriously. After the fourth hour of identical billboards, your brain starts to ooze out your ears.
That’s why frequent stops for reds are the antidote to highway hypnosis. They inject chaos into the monotony. They reboot your attention span. A quick detour to a “Lost City of Gold” cave (that turned out to be a damp hole with a skeleton) will wake you up faster than any triple-espresso. I speak from experience.
Rickwood Field Road Trip Part 2 | Cincinnati Reds
Pack the Right Attitude, Forget Everything Else
You don’t need a detailed itinerary. You need snacks, a phone charger, and the willingness to be wrong. My last trip with “frequent stops for reds” taught me that the best stories come from the moments when the GPS dies.
We once followed a red flag on a mailbox for ten miles, just to see what was at the end. It was a guy selling rocks he’d painted like frogs. We bought four. They are now my favorite possession. Not kidding.
So, here’s my advice for your next road trip. Ignore the clock. Embrace the detour. And when you see that flash of red—a faded sign, a strange roof, a weird sculpture—just pull over. You’ll get where you’re going eventually. But you’ll remember where you’ve been.
Now, go find your twine.
