Route 66.

If you lived in America in one of those dusty little one horse towns on that famed highway Route 66, you could stand in the middle of the road and look towards Chicago, Illinois in one direction or Los Angeles, California in the other. How many young people have done exactly that and dreamed of a better life or the excitement and adventure lying down the road. Although I haven't stood in the middle of it and it's nowhere near as romantic, my particular 'Route 66' is the M1.

I grew up in Watford not far from the junction of the A41 and the M1. I can remember trundling around in the back of my parents' Morris Traveller and being aware of this mighty road that went south to London and north towards Birmingham where they spoke in a strange language and everyone lived in caves. As I grew older, I can remember going to London with my friends to visit all those places I had heard about never been. After I passed my own driving test I remember flying up the motorway to see where it went. It was all uncharted territory as far as I was concerned. In case you were wondering, I ended up in Coventry Cathedral, it's very nice.

Most of my family live a stone's throw from the motorway. When I got married I lived right beside it and when I got divorced and moved north, I travelled down it to collect my son each week. I still live just minutes away from the junction. I have used it to commute for a while and to go on holiday both in this country and abroad as both my local airports are close to it. Now I travel north on it to see my Grandson.

I'm not emotionally attached to this particular road or have fond memories of it, it's just that it has always been there, like the gateway to the rest of the world. The constant, muted, rumble of traffic whenever I sit in the garden or open the windows on a warm night, so ever-present that I don't notice it now. I expect everyone has their own 'Route 66' whether it is the road that takes them home or the country lane that runs past their window. It doesn't have to be a big road or paved in yellow bricks like Dorothy's famous highway, it's just the road that connects you to the rest of your life.

For those of you with a social conscience who haven't been north, you will be pleased to know that the people of Birmingham don't still live in caves. In fact some people from Wolverhampton even have houses, I know because I've been in one. How did I get there? Up the M1.