[Leon]

I guess everyone has their way of finding happiness, but I feel some don't succeed because they are searching for that big treasure, that ultimate goal.
Traveling by bus very regularly, I find those experiences very similar to your car trips. It helps that I'm doing night shifts, thus travel at late nights and early mornings with hardly any passengers.
I love to listen to music on the bus, with its engine's vibration and wide turns on empty freeways. Just watching the low lands of Holland go by, sometimes with a mist rising a few meters above it, and the rising sun in my eyes. Those uncomplicated moments make everything fall in its right place.
Eating potcookies with friends is a repeating event in my life as well. Priceless are the moments when we reach the same level and either conversate or laugh, untill we feel the time is there to enjoy the moment without sound (except music). Those moments help me realise that, even though my situation at the moment isn't how I want it to be, I can still enjoy myself.

It feels like I'm repeating your words, but I guess that's only a compliment to your well written story.