Where do I begin?

I thought I would start with a tale from the road. One that happened to my husband and I as we were traveling across country, on our honeymoon, moving to CA from MA.

This was back in the 80's and we were both pretty young, this was my first travel away from the town I grew up in, in MA. Now I had been a few places before but not this way. This was my first road trip experience. We were in a pickup truck with a shell on the back that was full of all my worldly possessions, including my 110lb Malamute- Sheppard mix dog named Jakey.

We left my hometown after breakfast with my family, the day after we were married. The plan was to travel the country exploring along the way with our final destination of Vandenburg AFB CA, where my husband was stationed. He had been in the Airforce around 6 years at this time, and very familiar with military life. I, however, was not, but I was jumping into this adventure with wonder and excitement, as well as some anxiety from leaving all that was familiar.

Because the first day we left later than expected we did not make it quite as far as we would like, we were targeting closer to Virginia, but we only made it to somewhere in New Jersey off the Garden State Parkway for that first night. It was dark and very rainy, and I needed to use the restroom so we both went in to get a room. There were a few people ahead of us and I stood next to my husband getting a good look at the place. The lobby was kind of plain, just a sofa, and a window with sliding glass for the reception desk. Next to that was a big sign that explained the rates. "Oh look" I said to my husband, "you can rent the room for only an hour if you'd like. That must be for truckers to take showers. " Seemed logical to me, there were a lot of trucks parked in the lot. My husband just smiled and didn't answer me, then went forward to rent the room for the night. When we got to the room, he explained that the rooms were likely used for other things besides sleeping, something that may have an hourly rate. I sat there looking at him, trying to get what he was implying when all of a sudden, it dawned on me! Well then, I did not want to sleep in the room, I was worried about every noise, everything, I then proceeded to get the dog out of the truck which is where he was going to sleep, so that he could protect us all night. I learned a few things that night, but the most important thing was to plan to stop around mealtimes every night so that you are not stuck staying in a hotel that rents by the hour!

A few days later we stopped somewhere in Arkansas for the night. We had checked several places before the one we stayed in, but they would not allow dogs. It was fall, but I would rather not leave Jakey outside in the truck all night. So here we were in Arkansas. In a small motel, where you park right in front of your room. Jakey was big and needed a little walk so I took him around the corner to stretch his legs and do his business, then we met back at the room. As I walked in, I watched my husband's face, he had a smirk that told me something was funny to him. I slowly looked around and tried to take in our new room. Two 1950's style wood beds. Mustard yellow lamps with embroidered orange fringe around the shade. The bed had a coin operated vibrator in it, oh my, we were in another quality place :-) I mentioned that and then he said, look at the floor, and that was when it sunk in. The floor was all tile, the walls were tile, there was a drain in the middle of the room. Wait, was this a kill room?! Hell no! Because it was so hard to find this place to allow our dog for the night we decided to stay. I did have another night of little to no sleep. When we got up in the morning and went to the office for the free coffee, we asked the man sitting out front, he wore a worn cowboy hat and very pointed cowboy boots, why is the entire room covered in tile? He said it was easier to clean; I decided not to ask further and headed out on our way.

Not sure of the exact route we took but eventually we ended up at the Grand Canyon. I was not excited about camping, but I did agree to sleeping in the back of the pickup truck (it did have a shell on the back, so it wasn't too bad). That was our first time visiting the Grand Canyon, we have been back several times, it is almost surreal to see for the first time. The colors, the beauty of the rock and the way the sun changes the reds and oranges to yellows and brown. Just amazing. While we were exploring, we saw a sign for an airplane ride over the canyon. We decided to splurge and do it! Jakey was settled at the hanger, and we ventured on to this small plane, that seats no more than 4. The pilot had us sit according to weight, so I was in the front seat with him and my husband had the back. He loved it, he was able to look out all windows and really had a clear view. I enjoyed it too; it was such an adventure. We went into the Canyon, with the walls of the Canyon above us and the Colorado River below us. That was hands-down the most amazing thing we did on that trip. A few years later they banned planes from going below the Canyon walls, there were too many accidents, the winds were very unpredictable there and it was deemed as unsafe. Oh, I could see that now, but at the time it did not seem that way, it was so exciting and what an amazing experience!

We took 2 weeks to explore as we drove across the country and had a fantastic trip, I thought I would share just one more stop, and that was in Sequoia National Park in CA. We came into the park when it was dark and all we could see was the road full of switch backs up the mountain and then down. Every so often there was a sign saying not to leave food in your car and showing pictures of how bears had ripped open campers and cars to get food. By the time we arrived at the park entrance I was not up for sleeping in the back of the truck, which was our plan. We asked if there were any other options and there was a log cabin available. It cost way more than we had been spending a night, but it was either the log cabin or sleeping in the truck and I was already very clear that was not going to happen. So, we checked in, Jakey had one bed, we had the other and we slept very well. It was the best I had slept during most of the trip. When we woke up in the morning, I opened the door to let the dog out, and I stood in absolute amazement. There in front of me and surrounding the cabin were the biggest trees I had ever seen in my life! I felt like Alice in Wonderland. The trees were amazing; they took my breath away with their beauty. Eventually my husband joined me, and we stood silently taking it all in, just the two of us and our four-legged buddy, enjoying a moment of astonishment at the wonders of the world.

That trip was the beginning of our passion for a gypsy type of life. We had a directional idea of where we were going but not a specific itinerary. We stopped at some very interesting places, big and small, but they were all part of the story of our honeymoon, and later the story of us. From that point on, we rarely plan every stop or every moment of a trip. We get a directional idea and some places that we researched and would like to visit but after that we follow the path the road calls.

Like Ralph Waldo Emerson has said, and Harley Davidson has embraced "Life is a journey, not a destination." We take that darn seriously!