I still enjoy the journey, often as much as the destination. All my SatNavs are set to avoid Motorways - not cause I'm scared or worried by them, but they bore the tits off me, and are full of idiots who don't use lanes properly.
The alternative holiday route often takes me on magical mystery tours, and I'll try and schedule a few stops on the way - often National Trust/English Heritage as you're fairly guaranteed a toilet and a half decent cup of tea/coffee. If the journey is more than a couple of hundred miles, I'll usually stick an overnighter in and sort out a good bar or restaurant to explore mid route.
We're having a couple of nights in York just before Christmas - it's only 140miles door to door - we'll probably go a fairly direct route up (avoiding Motorways and much of the A1) but have planned to spend the entire day Sunday travelling home - probably take a good 8 hours or so.
Oh the joys of motoring, when the sun shines, as it did last Saturday, it was roof down, warmly dressed to keep the chill out and a normally 50 mile round trip (that turned into a 80 mile journey with a detour due to an accident on the A6) for an Wallings ice cream from the diary where it's made, an ice cream I can get ft from the shop around the corner, it's' just the excuse to go meander thru some beautiful countryside.
One thing I do find in an open topped car, you get a greater sense of the area you are travelling thru., the smells, the scenery, the open blue sky above and feel the warming sun on your body, which makes a meandering journey more enjoyable than in a closed car. I probably should have draw that distinction in my earlier posting, as to how the mode of transport and bringing the county side into the cabin etc, changes my approach to any given journey. In September coming back from Ireland across the top of North Wales via fast dual carriageways at dusk, was taken at a more leisurely place whilst enjoying the setting sun. Had it been raining or roof up I would have covered the same journey much quicker, as the imperative would have changed to just getting home, rather than savouring the journey in the closing days of summer.
