Writing Prompt – On the Road Again

No sooner do I get back from Oregon than I have to start planning my next trip away.

Bummer!

Yeah, yeah, it’s great….but what should turn out to be a few relaxing weeks is turning into scads of laundry, tons of email catch-up, a frantic paying of bills and tossing out of all the science experiments taking place in the fridge.

Oh, and I’ll be eating lots of junk so that I don’t inadvertently start any more science experiments in the fridge.

Since I’ve got traveling on the mind again today…

Here’s Your Prompt:

• Imagine you’ve been driving for hours. The open road is barren and desolate, you need gas, and you’re hungry. Up ahead you see a shifty, broken down diner, but you’ve got no choice but to go in. Lucky for you, they’ve got gas pumps, too. Oh, and they serve liquor. There’s a bunch of Harleys parked out front all in a row. When you enter the diner, everyone’s crowded at the bar, staring at something you can’t see. What happens?
   
• On the road again –
  Just can’t wait to get on the road again…
  Goin’ places that I’ve never been.
  Seein’ things that I may never see again…
   
  ~ From “On the Road Again, Willie Nelson.
   
• You’re on vacation, up early the next morning due to jet lag, and the weather announcer on TV says that it’s going to be windy and cold for the next week (you were expecting sunny and beautiful). Someone in your party shouts, “Road Trip!” Where do you go? What do you do? Write what happens.
   
• Pick one:
   
  You’re driving
  
  • In a bad section of town…
  • In the “touristy” part of town…
  • In the part of the city where the rich people live…
  • On the open road in the middle of nowhere…
  • On a long stretch of unpaved road…
     
    

  … and one of these things happens:

  • You get a flat tire.
  • You run out of gas.
  • You see something extraordinary.
  • You’re robbed.
  • You hit an animal.
     
    

  Write the scene.
  
   

• “…a number of people, shop people and so forth, attracted by the stories they had heard, were walking over the Horsell Bridge and along the road between the hedges that runs out…” ~ From The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells, 1898.
   
• If you journal, write about a trip you’d planned, but had to cancel. What happened? How did you feel? Or, write about a trip you’d like to make: Why do you want to go? What draws you to that place? What will you do when you get there?
   
• “An elegant carriage stood in the middle of the road with a pair of spirited grey horses; there was no one in it, and the coachman had got off his box and stood by…” ~ From Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1917.
   
• You get home after your trip, drop the suitcase inside the door, collapse on the sofa and say, “Thank goodness I’m home!” What happened?
   

Good Luck!

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