Pre-summer Drive: Baler- Dipaculao- Maddela- Nueva Vizcaya

Taking a break to stretch

I have recently taken up driving to the country side. Every now and then, I would look at the map, and check which places I could explore, but this time, not through public transportation as I used to. Driving calms me more than sitting on the sofa and watch Justice League again. When I drive, I experience silence in that I focus on the road and the roadside scenery, away from the noise in my head. This also gives me a good opportunity for beautiful photographs- materials for my photo collage that I am planning to put up on my living room wall.

The Road Trip: Vigan, Pagudpud, Tuguegarao, Santiago

I drove for a hundred or so kilometres (6 hours) with my car’s hood unlatched. I noticed this only when we stopped at a gasoline station for a stretcher, halfway into our destination. I was lucky the hood did not fly open towards our windshield or someone else would be writing this story. Excitement can really get the better of anyone, but I am glad that even with that major safety blunder, I still went ahead and tick this to-do off my list. 

I had been curious about driving to Pagudpud and back. I never thought I would muster the courage to finally do it, being a fairly amateur driver. I got my first car seven years ago. It was a 15-year old automatic Accord, which I had to have fixed before driving. It would take three weeks including the repainting, so I had time to enroll in a driving school for a 10-hour session. This was enough for me not to be a threat to my life and others. For four years, I was a “good” driver, very defensive, not going beyond speed limit, letting pedestrians go first, and not violating traffic rules (except for the two times, when I did not see the signs). Driving was fun, but it was also a stressful endeavor, since one wrong move could spell the difference between life and death. This is not to mention the possible breakdown that I would experience on the road, which my old car gave me a lot of (overheating and starting problems).