Feeling safe driving

I like to believe We all have a place where we feel safe and comfortable — a sanctuary.

That place can be as simple as your living room or as complex as a fallout shelter. Granted, I think most of us would feel safe in a fallout shelter under the right circumstances, but my point is, I think most people define their sanctuary as a place — a stationary place that does not move.

I don’t look at it that way. For me, a sanctuary is a state of mind, not a place at all. I guess you could say my personal sanctuary is multiple places — it’s my car. That’s right. I feel the safest and most comfortable behind the wheel of my car, even when the wind is blowing 50 plus miles an hour on black ice. It doesn’t make sense, does it. Why would I feel safer and more comfortable driving than I would in my own living room? I can’t explain it either. In fact, I wasn’t even consciously aware I felt more comfortable in my car than in my own bed until last night when I was driving back from Denver to Pine Bluffs.

On the trip I made a quick stop at a gas station in Cheyenne. I grabbed a bite to eat at the attached Wendy’s. I wasn’t in a hurry, so I could have eaten inside the restaurant, but I didn’t. Instead I ordered my food to go and ate in my car parked.

I was working on my second Double Stacker when I realized I always opt to eat in my parked car than to eat in the dining room of any given restaurant.

As I was unwrapping my third burger, I was thinking “Why do I eat in the car?” I came to the conclusion that I simply feel more comfortable. I told myself I like tuning the radio to the stations I like, and I like having control of the temperature.

Later that night, however, as I arrived back home to my apartment to lay down in my own bed, I realized I had an urge to drive more, an urge I was unable to fulfill, but an urge nonetheless. That’s when I realized it. The car isn’t my sanctuary. My sanctuary is my own state of mind.

Some people like the feeling of being confined, and those people may see their living rooms as a sanctuary, but me, I feel safe because I know that, no matter what happens, I can jump in my car and take off. I like knowing that just with a flick of my wrist, I have a machine that can take me whereever I want to go.