Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Tag: driving

  • Losing my voice during the pandemic

    Since the pandemic began I’ve worked from home the vast majority of the time. I normally drive about 20,000 miles a year, but in the last two years I’ve put only about 3,000 miles on my car. I’m a car singer. When I’m driving, I’ve got my music on and I sing along. I can…

  • The most dangerous highway in Indiana

    US 40 in Indiana, usually devoid of traffic today thanks to nearby I-70, was once Indiana’s most dangerous highway.

  • On vacation, make it possible for the road to rise up to meet you

    Margaret and I wanted a good, long hike through the woods on our last full day in Ireland’s County Galway. We drove to Connemara National Park figuring that’s what we’d get. We were wrong. The park’s trail system runs right up the side of a mountain. We started to hike it, but we soon overheated…

  • Seven tips for driving in Ireland

    We wanted to fully control our itinerary in Ireland. So no packaged tours for us: we decided what we wanted to see, no matter how far off the beaten path — or to go nowhere, if we felt like it. So we rented a car and drove it all over Ireland wherever our noses led…

  • Is being mindful of the present moment overrated?

    As I drove to work the other day, I dreamed of my future. I should have been paying closer attention to the road. When I got to work I realized I couldn’t remember anything about the drive. Oops! I have always been a guy who ruminates about the past and frets over the future. It sometimes takes over…

  • License to grin

    My youngest son just got his learner’s permit, so I want to retell this story from 2009 of me getting my driver’s license. My friends had all had their driver’s licenses for a couple years when I finally got mine. My dad had given me some driving lessons but wasn’t very motivated about it, and…

  • Driving and singing: Glen Campbell, “Wichita Lineman”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Singing is cathartic for me. I can’t imagine not singing. I do most of my singing while driving, listening to my favorite songs on my car stereo. Grandma and Grandpa retired to a small lake,…

  • Driving and singing: Rod Stewart, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Singing is cathartic for me. I can’t imagine not singing. I do most of my singing while driving, listening to my favorite songs on my car stereo. I dated Alison the summer I turned 19.…

  • Driving and singing: Carpenters, “A Song For You”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Here I tell a story about the first celebrity death that hit me hard. I wrote this before the recent deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman, deaths that did not hit me particularly…

  • Welcome to Thorntown

    State Road 47 is a winding and lovely drive in western Indiana. It begins in the wild terrain around Turkey Run State Park. As it heads east, those steep hills become the rolling terrain of quiet farmland. The road curves frequently around old farm boundaries and around terrain challenges. But the fun ends at Thorntown…

  • Autumn on Kessler Boulevard

    George Kessler (1862-1923) was a pioneer city planner who believed that cities could be beautiful – lush and green, with limited pollution. Many American cities hired him to design their park and boulevard systems, including all three Indiana cities in which I have lived – South Bend, Terre Haute, and Indianapolis. Someday I need to write a…

  • Restored in Bridgeton

    It’s Down the Road’s fifth blogiversary!All month I’m reposting favorite stories from the blog’s early days. In my early 20s not only was I out of school but I was working at things I’d long dreamed about — making software and playing music on the radio. You’d think I would feel like I was on top…

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