The road has always called to me. I think I might have started counting down to my sixteenth birthday when I was around four…because getting a license meant freedom. Until I was 14, I lived on a busy country highway about three miles outside of town. That meant I couldn’t ride my bike on the road, I couldn’t walk to a friend’s house, and I was more or less dependent on my parents to take me wherever I needed to go. It also meant that the only person around my age to play with was my older brother. Most of the time, he primarily wanted to ignore me, as older siblings do. When I did get his attention, he seemed only to be interested in playing games that ultimately ended with me being bossed around and/or tested my physical limitations as a preschooler or both. There was a game called “Army” in which I was required to be the “private” while my sibling “sergeant” ordered me to run around our acre of land and perform calisthenics on our jungle gym. This was not my kind of entertainment. I obviously needed some wheels.