5 Things I've Learned from being on the Road

I've spent a lot of time on the road, being a home health and contract therapist. This is my short list of things I've learned from the road.

1. Never follow anyone hauling anything. You'd be amazed at the things I've witnessed falling off of trucks: ladders, chairs, a desk, a bale of hay and most astonishingly....a refrigerator!
2. Keep a camera handy. This goes back to the crazy stuff you might see, and it's tons of fun to show off these pictures. I'll put mine in a future post.
3. Stop and help someone. That is if your kids aren't in the car and you can think while under stress. I've helped a girl run from a stalking ex-boyfriend and assisted a man out of the middle of a busy 5 lane road (he'd either jumped or been thrown from a car). I've also stopped a lot only to drive on a minute later and had nothing noteworthy happen. It feels good to offer help to someone and be a part of something good in this world.
4. Use your instincts--if something looks crazy or dangerous it probably is. Once on a busy weekend night at the gas station, an able-bodied young man claiming car trouble asked me for a ride. After he declined an offer to borrow my cell phone, I was pretty certain that I was about 5 minutes away from being a statistic if I let him in my car.
5. Enjoy the solitude. Turn off the radio and cell phone and spend some quiet time with yourself and your surroundings. I enjoy kind of a zen driving, where I'm alert but relaxed, focused and present.