Meg and I took a 6-hour roadtrip down to South Padre Island last weekend. It’s amazing to me that taking a car trip can still be so romantic. The car as an intimate space. You’re not distracted by your normal routine–there’s nothing to do but talk to each other, listen to music, or look out the window. We stayed off of the big interstates for most of the trip, took 183 down to Corpus Christi through small Texas towns. I saw a huge row of wind turbines spinning on the horizon. Tractors running in the fields. Cones from Dairy Queen. Little traffic. No stress.

Yes, it felt like a victory of sorts.