The beginning of a road trip is always packed with excitement. Anticipation about things to come and thoughts of what lies ahead at your destination. Similarly, anyone who has ever driven a long distance can relate to that feeling when you finally see your destination peek over the horizon. We can almost feel that thrill as we look at the city skyline visible here.

But, what about the miles in between? The ones spent driving down open roads at odd hours with nothing but your thoughts and the radio for company. How do we fill that long stretch? Sometimes getting where we want to go is about finding a routine that works and then sticking to it, building comfort into something not naturally comfortable.

My grandfather always drove overnight, everyone loaded in the car and headed down the road, stopping frequently but only for his next warm cup of coffee to push him through. My own father and I make a 22 hour car trip multiple times per year, and have found a rhythm all our own to get us through the drive. It might not be the highlight of our trip, but it is something we can rely on to be part of the experience, and because we know it so well, the task of covering hundreds of miles of road together isn’t quite as daunting as it could be.

Routines are those little things in life we can rely on when neither our starting point nor our destination are in plain view. They help us push through the mundane, the otherwise uncertain, and the less than entertaining. Sometimes they are little things, like the way we start our day before work or prepare ourselves for a peaceful night’s rest. Other times they are played out in grand scale across miles of open road. We don’t know the routines that took place before the capturing of this photo but you can bet they were just as important as the city finish line we see on the horizon.