She Drove It Anyway and nobody in her life tried to talk her out of it. That part surprised her. She had braced for the pushback, the raised eyebrows, the quiet chorus of are you sure about this. Instead her teenage kids helped her pack. Her sister put a tracker on her car. Her best friend called every evening at seven. And on a Tuesday morning in early fall she flew to St. Louis to drive Route 66.

She wasn't running away. She had been through a divorce, lost a job she was good at, and spent the better part of two years making sure everyone around her was okay. Somewhere in the doing of all that she had misplaced herself. Not dramatically. Just quietly. The way you set something down for a minute and then can't quite remember where you left it. Her dad had driven Route 66 when he needed to think. Told her the miles had a way of sorting things out that nothing else could. She had carried that story for thirty years. This was finally the right time to find out if he was right.

I met her in Needles on one of her last days on the road. She slid onto the stool next to mine with the easy comfort of a woman who had been doing this long enough to feel at home anywhere along the road. This week's Roadside Notes is her story. And it belongs to every person who has been so busy taking care of everyone else that they've lost track of where they set themselves down.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/07/23/she-drove-it-anyway/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

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