Rex Pickett's Sideways Column: Summer is for Road Trips

Relationships and writing projects have one thing in common; they take trial and error to get right, to find that balance between mutual understanding and need, maturity and knowing what you want. Road trips are the same. I have written and directed two feature films and they were both road movies. Difficult-to-make road movies. I can’t say I got it right. There’s something about the road. Every mile racked up launches you to a new adventure. But it wasn’t until I discovered road trips and wine tasting that I knew I had found the acme of travel. And wine tasting road trips, which more or less originated in California, are meant to be taken in the summer when the vines are leafed out in all their verdancy, when the air is warm and balmy, when birdsong can be sonorously deafening, when all else around you is awash in silence.