On the Road Again

I’ve never been much of a country music fan. I do understand it’s an important genre, but it is not at the top of my music choices. With that said, I’ve been thinking a lot about Willie Nelson recently.

Nelson wrote and sang the song On the Road Again, which became a country-western number one hit back in 1980.  He actually wrote it on the back of a barf bag on an airplane. Nelson wrote it as part of a request to compose a song for the movie Honeysuckle Rose. It’s an homage to his love of what happens out on the road. The time with friends. The time with music. All things that he values so highly.

Someone might ask why I even bring this up considering I’m not a great country music aficionado. It’s because I’m starting to travel again. In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be on the road multiple times. Multiple nights away for each trip. And for the first time other than a few quick trips here or there, this is the first travel close to the way I used to live my life before the pandemic.

I’m not overly concerned about Covid. I’m vaccinated and wear a mask. I really look forward to seeing clients face-to-face again. But overall, I’m not all that excited.

It’s the other things. It’s concerns about airplane travel. Not for health reasons but because there are so few flights--I don’t want to get caught somewhere. It’s about rental cars. I don’t want to arrive and have an enormous problem getting from point “A” to point “B” as a part of my client’s needs because there’s such a shortage of autos for the rental car agencies. 

It’s always the little things. It’s the little things that get in the way of the big things. Not having the car ready or having flight issues will impede with my desire to get there and get home quickly. And then there’s just the frustration. I hope I’m not prognosticating, because I hope I’m wrong. But having less strife in times of constant change is certainly a positive.