Driving Where The Road Takes You

Volvoboy

Evenin', last night after dropping my mam and her friend into town at around 8pm i had no plans for the evening everone was either broke or saving for the silly season, so i decided to go for a ''spin'', drove all around the south side of the city and then ended up on the N4, thought ''hmm whats out here'' so i took a spin out to Kildare and got a bit lost-ish in a place called Rathangan, so found myself back on the N4 and poped up to Drogheda and then back home again, got home around 4am, done around 200 miles last night, but it was nice just driving and listening to Tom Waits:)

Am i the only one ?




-VB-

Volvoboy

Volvoboy wrote: »

Evenin', last night after dropping my mam and her friend into town at around 8pm i had no plans for the evening everone was either broke or saving for the silly season, so i decided to go for a ''spin'', drove all around the south side of the city and then ended up on the N4, thought ''hmm whats out here'' so i took a spin out to Kildare and got a bit lost-ish in a place called Rathangan, so found myself back on the N4 and poped up to Drogheda and then back home again, got home around 4am, done around 200 miles last night, but it was nice just driving and listening to Tom Waits:)

Am i the only one ?




-VB-

Careful they are quare folk in Rathagan:)

I frequently go on long drives. Usually because I have a woeful sense of direction and I always get lost trying to find a shortcut.

JohnCleary

Done it once or twice during the day when you can see nice views etc.

I used to love doing it on the bike, but get a bit bored in the car unless i've company. But I see where you're coming from sometimes it can be relaxing

Rowley Birkin QC

Did it last year when I had a lot on my mind, took about 5 hours to go from Mitchelstown to Longford, just me, mypod and my trusty AA map.

Went via Limerick, Galway, Athlone and every small town and village in between. I find driving long distances a great way to figure out what does be going on in the ceann.

skibum

Used to do it a lot, not so much these days, I always feel great after a long drive, helps clear my head, gives me time to think. I enjoy driving, and when I'm on my own, no screaming / fighting kids etc it's relaxing.
2 years ago we were on holidays near Biarritz, suddenly got the urge to drive to a ski resort I'd heard about in the pyrenees, told the missus (she knows I'm mad, knows better to try to make any sense out of most of my "ideas", told me to take it easy and enjoy myself ) Got up at 6am, set the satnav, and took off, stopped off at Lourdes on the way back (tackier that I would have imagined ) Had a fantastic day driving in the mountains, fantastic weather, little traffic, stopped off at an outdoor kart track, had a go of a proper 100cc kart . Got back around 6pm, fantistic day.

Slightly off topic, I hope to do the Scally Rally next year with my brother. Again the missus thinks we are mad, so I'm working on the brownie points at the moment

Bogger77

bigkev49 wrote: »

Did it last year when I had a lot on my mind, took about 5 hours to go from Mitchelstown to Longford, just me, mypod and my trusty AA map.

Went via Limerick, Galway, Athlone and every small town and village in between. I find driving long distances a great way to figure out what does be going on in the ceann.

No offence mate, but I think your AA map needs updating. That trip is about 50% shorter, if you head the direct route. (take turn for Thurles in Horse and Jockey, and follow N62 to Athlone, then the N55, then the N4 at Edgewardstwon aka Mostrim, or the the R road to Longford outside of Ballymahon on the N55.

I'd not consider Limerick to Galway to Athlone as a "driving road", too many hold ups and bad bad roads.

Andrewf20

Driving in or around Dublin can be a pain with traffic during most daylight hours, however a blast up in the wicklow mountains can be great. I have great memories of great drives in the west and north of Ireland (and in USA) on carless roads where the roads are just brill. A national treasure methinks.

See some great driving pics attached from trips past. (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Donegal)

Borzoi

Volvoboy wrote: »

Am i the only one ?

A few years back I'd 4 days to make it from Nuremberg to Dusseldorf in Germany - about an 8 hour drive on the autobahn. But I took the back roads, and followed my nose. Found some great towns like Wurzberg and Bayreuth. Good time!

kluivert

Add me to this list. I work a mile away from where I live and still manage to do an average of 18k miles per year some this sort of thing.

Would be more fun in a sports car or something. Astra will do for now

L1011

Do occasionally (think we had a thread on this recently actually?), mainly to clear the head for various reasons. Have ended up by the sea in Sligo or Wexford a few times in the middle of the night/morning, fairly peaceful and a decent drive these days.

dudara

Many a time. It's so nice just to drive to the coast and wander along it for a while. I was up in Cavan for a weekend recently and I drove around a lot of the lakes up there. It was lashing rain, everything was monochrome and there were these lovely lakes and scenery everywhere.