On the Road

I’m a lucky man in that I have gotten to see so  much of our beautiful country.  There are ten states that I still haven’t visited. Bucket list!  I got to see many states because of my job as an HR representative for Minerals Technologies.  That’s for another blog post. The other way I got to see states was a cross country road trip when I was twelve. My dad, mom, sister, niece, nephew, and I traveled from Slatington, Pennsylvania to Pomona, California to visit my big brother Don.

Don is my oldest brother and he was eighteen years old when I arrived on this Earth. A story suggests that he was on his senior high school class trip when I was born. There is a picture, I wish I could find, from my dad’s employer’s company newsletter of Don holding baby me.  Awww.  Don joined the Marines right after high school and ended up being based in California. He fell in love with the place and never came home except for an occasional visit. He got married there. Began a career there. Had two kids there.

So, back to the trip. My dad bought a used station wagon just for the trip. He never could afford new cars and this one was questionable for a 6,000 mile journey. We piled into the station wagon. Only a few miles outside of town, a Charles Chips (remember them?) can fell onto my three year old nephew’s head and he began to wail and wail and wail. I remember thinking that this is going to be a long, long trip!

My dad did all of the driving. He was the only one who had a license. His goal was to drive 600 miles a day in order to get there in five. He pushed himself, to exhaustion driving close to twelve hours every single day. This was before the Interstate Highway System! We stayed each night in a motel with a heated pool. That was the reward for a long day on the road.

Somewhere along the way we ended up on the fabled Route 66. I can still remember a lot of the towns we passed through, especially through the southwest. One night we stayed in Gallup, New Mexico. There was a huge Native American gathering happening in the town. I remember my dad deciding to visit a bar a few blocks from the motel. He liked his Ballantine beer. My mom was so angry, and so scared. She was convinced that he would get into an altercation with a Navajo and come back to the room without his scalp!

We called my brother when we made it to California. Needles, California.  He let us know that we still had another 250 miles to go!

We eventually made it and stayed about a week and had the long ride home. A wonderful trip of a lifetime.

Writing this, and leaving so much out, I think that maybe there is a book in here somewhere. Hmmm.

Bright sunny day today…a great day to get out on the road!