Driving Without a Map

The plan was to follow Route 1 south. By noon of the first day we had already made three wrong turns and found a beach no one else seemed to know about.

It was not a remarkable beach on paper. Small, slightly rocky, with none of the amenities you find at the advertised spots. But we were the only people there for three hours, and the light in the afternoon came in sideways and turned the water a shade of green I cannot name.

That is the central paradox of road trips: the expectation is freedom, and yet most people follow the same route, stop at the same lookouts, take the same photos. The interesting things happen when you turn off the expected path, often by accident.