Leave Before the Light

The best hour of any drive is the one most people sleep through.

Pour the coffee while the lot is still dark and silent. Check the hitch twice. Roll out slowly, gently, past the quiet sites.

Twenty minutes later the whole sky begins to change, and the highway you were dreading turns gold and empty and entirely yours.

There will be traffic by noon, and a schedule, and a decision about lunch.

But for now there is only:

• the hum of the road
• the mountains lifting out of shadow
• the odd, private sense that you have gotten away with something