Sunday, July 08, 2007

Triumph of the Wheel

This past Saturday was our wedding anniversary, and I surprised my wife by driving up in a bright red Triumph TR3. No, it wasn't a midlife crises, I just happened to know about Sports Car Rentals in Batesville, Virginia.

Saturday was sunny and warm, and we drove up through Madison to Luray, then on to Route 11 in the Shenadoah Valley, passing through Harrisonburg, Waysnesborough and Staunton. We followed Route 250 through Rockfish Gap, and down to Route 29. And then we took backroads from Charlottesville back to Orange.

It was a great day. We stopped when we wanted to, but mostly it was a day of driving -- and seeing things with new perspective. Even familiar roads seemed different from that low-slung vehicle (while seated in the car I could touch the pavement without effort). We could feel a real temperature difference when we drove through shaded patches of road, and we even noticed the air was cooler when we paralleled a river.

There was no radio in the Triumph which was just as well. Between the rushing air and throaty roar of the engine, any music would have just been lost. Still, it was possible to converse, and so we did. For our long trip Saturday and our shorter trip to return the car Sunday, we talked, and rode, and laughed.

It wasn't a significant anniversary as far as numbers go (like the tenth, or twenty-fifth), but I think it will rank as one of our favorites.

- Ralph

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