Night Driving
Sun, 10 Feb 2008.
Volkswagen - When was the last time you just went for a drive?
This TV ad is undeniably fantastic, so thanks to Dennis for reminding me about it. The poetry, the restrained emotion and the gravelly delivery all focused on one of life’s more simple pleasures: driving home on empty streets.
My drive home on Friday night at 2 in the morning was amazing. It was amazing for reasons that appear to be utterly mundane, the same reasons why a grassy field or a blue sky can be mercilessly taken for granted.
The car I drove in Melbourne was a Mazda 626 hatchback. Unoffensive, focus-group silver covered every panel and the interior was a single shade of grey. At night, the instrument cluster lit up in a murky cloud of dull green. Before that, I drove a hand-me-down Ford with a wheezing V6, very thirsty radiator and a malfunctioning temperature gauge. It was the kind of car that begged you to love it because its unreliability became its personality. The various compromises we had to make for this car’s slow mechanical death were parallels of the give/take in everyday human relationships.
These cars that took me home from friend’s houses in the dead of night and they stirred a yearning for the dark, open road. Suburbia flew past me; pockets of air sounded like whispers of hushed conversations. The g-forces pushed softly against me like a guiding hand, Here. Let’s go this way. Now it’s my time to do this all over again in Seattle.
The difference is that in Seattle, I have my Volkswagen which is a cockpit of fantastic deep blues and reds. I drive mainly on freeways and, more importantly, freeway interchanges. I am by no means a brave driver but it’s very rewarding to glide through these series of ramps and twists. By day, they are the clogged veins of a city; they are uncertain and erratic and there is a mess of merging and lane changes on either side. I putter through them in slow motion and dutifully signal my way out of the rat’s nest. By night, I cut through them like a hot knife, fast-forwarding through my daily commute and positioning my car so that I can do minimal corrections to my steering and speed.
It’s most telling when I look up at the rear-view mirror: it’s not empty road behind me, it’s night.
I was never a car person. I drove a mini-van during my high school years, a Ford Ranger during college. When my truck’s transmission died on me a month or two ago, it was put on me to get a car I actually wanted.
Since then, I love to drive, especially at night. Your post speaks wonders to me, even though I live more in the country. There is nothing like driving through the back roads late at night with nothing in front of you and nothing behind you but darkness and stars.
poodlegoose.wordpress.com
i love it, when driving at 2am, an hour long drive magically turns into a 20 minute one. Even my rusty piece of shit ute feels fast at 2am.
Ha! You should work for Volkswagen. I never thought driving was such an exciting experience.
also, to answer the question, the last time I just went for a drive, was when gas was less than $2 a gallon. So a long time ago.