Take the Long Way Home

Making the case against efficiency

Yesterday, after picking up my oldest son (15 next Tuesday, what the what?!) from high school, I told him we were taking the scenic route home.

Mostly, I’d decided we’d go that way because I’d seen a notification on a local traffic website showing the interstate we usually take to get home was shut down due to some sort of spill all over the road. Traffic was backed up for miles and miles, with no end in sight.

Taking the scenic route, in our case, the Blue Ridge Parkway, would allow us to bypass all of that mess while simultaneously taking in the fall foliage.

As it turned out, the drive home took over an hour (we’re usually home in 20-25 minutes). Numerous other leaf-peepers were on similar meandering drives. The speed limit up there is also 45 mph max, so efficiency is not the order of the day when taking in the perks of the Parkway, it should be noted.

I thought he might get bothered by the extra time it was taking to get home. Typically, at the end of the school day, he’s exhausted (high school is rough, especially freshman year, and even more so when you’re at a new school with triple the student population of your previous one), and wants little more than to decompress in the solace and serenity of his bedroom here in the cove when he arrives back home in the afternoon.

What I noticed, though, as the drive continued, and grew longer, was that he gradually put down his phone, looked out the window, took in the views and ambient music I had playing, and became fully present.

“This is really nice”, he said.