All the years of saying, “let’s do this again,” “let’s keep in touch,” “we should meet at a time other than weddings and funerals,” and “we’ll come visit” all finally became realized during this road trip. This trip brought us from Iowa, northeast to Vermont, south to Florida, west to Texas and then north to home. 6875 miles, driving through 25 states, making 34 stops and visiting 85 people in 15 of those states in 5 full weeks. A visit was generally one night, once as short as a half hour, and once for four nights while visiting with 4 sets of people.
Joe grew up in Chicago and Sandy was born in Vermont and grew up in Connecticut. Relatives are all over the country and some friends that we met in Iowa had moved away. A whole tapestry of people that encompassed our whole life: friends, neighbors, co-workers, people we knew from church, nieces and nephews who have grown up and moved on and cousins, lots and lots of cousins. We had always talked about a trip like this.
We called this trip the “Family and Friends Tour (East)” and it was just what the name implies. We planned the trip while spending a bit of time in Mexico (a retirement gift to ourselves). We brought a map of the United States, our Christmas card list and those tiny post-its with the arrows, writing every stop on a post it and plotting them on the map. Then it was a Mapquest to see the distance and time between each stop. We then put them on a big calendar and began the task of contacting everyone to see if they would be available on the date penciled in. We had a few time constraints: we wanted to be home by Easter, our daughter could only see us on a Friday, and we were coordinating a 4 day get together with 4 of Sandy’s high school classmates. Enough that we weren’t able to see all our family and friends in the eastern USA. And the friends in the western USA will have to wait for another trip, probably in the fall when we finish Route 66.
Joe grew up in Chicago and Sandy was born in Vermont and grew up in Connecticut. Relatives are all over the country and some friends that we met in Iowa had moved away. A whole tapestry of people that encompassed our whole life: friends, neighbors, co-workers, people we knew from church, nieces and nephews who have grown up and moved on and cousins, lots and lots of cousins. We had always talked about a trip like this.
We called this trip the “Family and Friends Tour (East)” and it was just what the name implies. We planned the trip while spending a bit of time in Mexico (a retirement gift to ourselves). We brought a map of the United States, our Christmas card list and those tiny post-its with the arrows, writing every stop on a post it and plotting them on the map. Then it was a Mapquest to see the distance and time between each stop. We then put them on a big calendar and began the task of contacting everyone to see if they would be available on the date penciled in. We had a few time constraints: we wanted to be home by Easter, our daughter could only see us on a Friday, and we were coordinating a 4 day get together with 4 of Sandy’s high school classmates. Enough that we weren’t able to see all our family and friends in the eastern USA. And the friends in the western USA will have to wait for another trip, probably in the fall when we finish Route 66.
Although at times we were anxious to get home, we never got bored. Every day was a new and fresh adventure, new people, new food and new conversations. Without exception we were welcomed and made to feel at home wherever we went. It’s quite a humbling experience. Thank you so very much everyone! We are looking forward to returning the kindness you showed us.
I have really enjoyed your blogs each day...and appreciate the time you spent doing this.....some day lets take a trip together and have our own blog together....it has been fun traveling along with you through the great USA.
ReplyDeleteRita