Travel Journals: Retirement Road Trip!

Thirty-nine years ago, the summer of our first anniversary, we piled into our gray Nash Rambler in Washington, DC, where we lived, and set out for the West Coast, where we thought we might want to live some day.

Before that trip, we city kids thought the Midwest farmland between the Atlantic and the Mississippi was a vast expanse. We learned that summer that it was only the preface to the story of the vastness of the United States.

Leaving St. Louis, we encountered the Great Plains in earnest. The farther west we traveled, the wider the expanses became. A half day out of St. Louis, headed for Denver, we saw in the distance an imperfection in the horizon, a jagged bit of visual static, that grew through the afternoon until it became the Rocky Mountains. Past Denver, crossing the Rocky Mountains was an experience no travel video can prepare a person for, especially a couple Midwest flatlanders. Beyond the Continental Divide, the spaces were so great that, at 80 mph, we felt as if we were standing still. We drove endless miles with no sign of human habitation beyond the boundaries of the interstate.

Everyone should drive this country coast to coast at least once. It's the only way to grasp the raw size and scope of America. You need this American geography lesson to begin to understand American history.

Four decades later, we’re setting out again on a new adventure – Retirement Road Trip. California is again the goal, where San Luis Obispo will be our home for the month of January. This time, we're chasing the sun, seeking someplace where it has some heat.

I drove first shift, the night shift. It was all darkness, fog, flurries, silence and good coffee. Carol slept, then took over as the sun, still cold, peeked over the eastern horizon. Rowdie was settled in her den at the back of the RAV4, happy to be Road Trip Dog. We turned right at Des Moines (French for “The Moines”) and headed west.

Day One was, in a word, uneventful - all you want to say about a day of travel. We had good weather. We arrived in North Platte, Nebraska, ahead of schedule, took a walk, settled in. 'Nuff said.

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