Well, here's a number that'll surprise exactly nobody who's ever white-knuckled a rental car down a gravel road just to see what was at the end of it: global self-drive travel bookings are up 81 percent. That's not a typo. Car rental bookings worldwide have surged that much, and it says a lot about how folks want to travel these days, according to a report out of the Manila Times this week.

I've been saying for a while now that the interstates get you there fast, but the trip actually lives on the backroads, in the small towns, at the diner where the coffee's been on the burner since sunup. Looks like the rest of the world is catching on. Travellers aren't just booking flights and shuttles and tour buses anymore. They're picking up keys at a counter and pointing the car down whatever road looks interesting.

And tell you what, that's the right way to do it. A tour bus stops where the schedule says to stop. Your own car stops where the light hits the river just right, or where you spot a hand-painted sign for pie. Some of the best mornings of my life started with a wrong turn somewhere in the Ozarks.

The surge tracks with what a lot of us noticed after the last few years. People got reacquainted with driving close to home, then they got comfortable going farther, and now they don't want to give the wheel back. There's a freedom in self-drive travel that no itinerary can match. Want to stay an extra day because the fishing turned on? Stay. Want to skip the crowded overlook and find your own? Go ahead. Nobody's waiting on you but you.

There's a practical side to it too. A car means you're not bound to a city center. You can sleep in a quiet town twenty miles out where the motel is cheaper and the biscuits are better, then drive in for the sights when you're good and ready. Rent a vehicle built for the terrain, whether that's a high-clearance SUV for mountain passes or just a comfortable sedan for coastal highways, and the destination starts the minute you pull out of the lot.

If you're thinking about joining the 81 percent, a little advice from somebody who's burned a tank or two. Check the tires before you leave the rental lot, every time. Know whether your rental agreement allows gravel roads, because some don't, and getting towed out of a forest road on your own dime takes the shine off a trip quick. And get the insurance figured out before you're standing at the counter at 11 at night after a delayed flight, tired and agreeable. That's when you buy stuff you don't need.

Also, don't overplan the route. Have a destination, sure, but leave room for the stuff you can't book in advance. The roadside fruit stand. The overlook with nobody at it. The town with the world's largest whatever. Those are the parts you'll actually tell people about when you get home.

My own fall trip through the Ozarks is coming up, and this report just confirms what I already knew in my bones. People don't want to be delivered to a destination anymore. They want to drive there themselves, windows down, radio low, watching the country roll by at their own pace. The road's been waiting. Go on and take it.