What is Go For a Ride Day?
Go For a Ride Day, celebrated on November 22, urges you to just get up and get out! Do you ever feel like you’re tied to your laptop/phone/tablet screens? We’ve become a pretty sedentary bunch — a far cry from the people who discovered countries, oceans, and animals simply by getting off the couch and exploring. Make today a day to set your spirit free and enjoy your wanderlust on whatever mode of transportation suits you best. Bike, boat, car, skateboard, sleigh—it doesn’t matter what you choose! Pick a location you’ve always wanted to visit and make today the day you’ll go.
History of Go For a Ride Day
Birthdays are fun and Christmas means presents (if you’re lucky), but nothing quite compares with the magical day you get your driver’s license. That’s when your world truly changes forever. Why? Cars mean freedom. You can suddenly go anywhere at anytime (as long as your parents are cool with your plans). Such is the nature of transportation — something we in the 21st century take for granted. We all grew up with planes, trains and automobiles — so we’re quite used to getting where we need to go.
But it wasn’t always that way. When President Jefferson asked Lewis (and, eventually, Clark) to explore the American West in 1804, there were no nonstop flights from St. Louis to the Oregon coast. As the History Channel describes it: “The excursion lasted over two years. Along the way they confronted harsh weather, unforgiving terrain, treacherous waters, injuries, starvation, disease and both friendly and hostile Native Americans. Nevertheless, the approximately 8,000-mile journey was deemed a huge success and provided new geographic, ecological and social information about previously uncharted areas of North America.”
And today we complain about trying to squeeze our carry-ons into the overhead bin.
Americans have always loved to “go for a ride” — with whatever mode of transportation existed. Horses. Boats. Bicycles. And of course, the ubiquitous car. The nation had a long love affair with automobiles starting in the mid 20th century and lasting until recently — as a new generation of car buyers, born after the car craze, loses interest in design — focusing instead on practicality. Stellar gas mileage makes Priuses as sexy as Porsches. Well, almost.
Go For A Ride Day encourages you to get out into the world – hop on your bike, into your car, or simply get your walking boots out of storage and go on a trip. Don’t worry too much about where you’re going, just enjoy the journey. What with all of the cell phones and emails constantly intruding on our lives, we can all agree that everyone needs some time to just get away from it all and feel free every now and then. And what better way to do that then to just go for a ride!
History of Go for a Ride Day
November 22nd has seen various developments of the transportation industry since as early as 1904, making Go For a Ride Day a celebration of not only cars, but any mode of transportation that strikes your fancy. In 1904, a man named Mathias Pfatischer living in Philadephia, was the first American to patent the pioneer direct electricity and and interpole motor.
In 1927, another American inventor named Carl J. Eliason from Saynor, Wisconsin, acquired the patent for the snowmobile, which definitely drastically changed the lives of many of the inhabitants of Wisconsin for the better. In 1977, the the regular mass service had their trial run on the famed supersonic Concorde. As you can see, November 22nd has been an important day for various areas of the transportation industry.
How to celebrate Go for a Ride Day
The greatest thing about Go for a Ride Day is that there is no one, right way to celebrate it. At the end of the day, what’s being celebrated is the freedom that the development of transportation has afforded us, and this is what we should take care to enjoy on this day. What is your favorite mode of transportation? Depending on where you live in the world, you could spend this day traveling somewhere into the unknown by boat, plane, helicopter, car, motorcycle, rollerskates, skateboard, or even more old-fashioned modes of transport, like by horse, sleigh, or horse-drawn carriage.
How you travel doesn’t matter, as long as you celebrate the free spirit of the day. In fact, you may just want to put on your most comfortable shoes and go for a walk in the mountains or the countryside. Pack a lunch, take the family if you wish, and spend the day walking, talking and enjoying nature instead of answering endless phone calls and messages.
If you decide to go by car, fill up your tank and go someplace you haven’t gone before. Perhaps there is a lake some distance away from your town or city where you used to spend vacations as a child, that you haven’t been to in years? Go there, and spend part of the day enjoying nature and your childhood memories, maybe do a little fishing.
If you have a boat, use it to spend some time out on the peaceful water, just floating around and daydreaming. And if you live in a place where air tickets are relatively cheap, like Europe, for instance, take a one-day trip to the capital of another country! Walk the cobblestone streets, try the local specialties and enjoy being in an entirely new place. However you decide to celebrate Go for a Ride Day, make sure it is a celebration of freedom and the open road!
