Flat, sandy, uniform coastal plain allowed for straight roads that cut from the suburbs to the shore. Endless walls of pine trees strattled the narrow strip of asphalt, 2 lanes wide, often buffered by a similarly narrow tract of sand. As a treat, lakes cordoned off by guardrails showed through breaks in the trees, wall of pine giving way to yet more flat. Not many people live in the pine barrens, so a lack of stop lights and junctions further imposed the feeling of getting nowhere quickly. At speed, the unbroken continuum of homogeneous surroundings blurred together in strata. On the majority of these trips it was just Dad and I, locked in orientation towards a point where the stripes converged, unreachable in the distance, shifting in color, giving and taking share of the sky.