It's A Small World After All

When my daughter read my blog post yesterday, she said "You didn't hyperventilate."  I said, "I'm a writer.  But Sasquatch is real."   End of discussion.

She also thought it would be fun (at least for me) to write more about my youthful road trip.  I hadn't really thought of the trip in any detail for many, many years.  Every once in a while I would think of how cool it was that I (so timid and shy) had the guts to take a 3 1/2 month road trip.   But I never thought much more than that.   It happened over 30 years ago, and my memory has faded a bit.   The hundreds of pictures that I took on the trip have long been MIA (which, maybe isn't such a bad thing - - I had that 70s kind of thing going on which, looking back, was not my best look - was not ANYBODY's best look).   So, the only things I have left are my faded memories and a scrapbook with brochures of some of the places we visited.   

We started off in SoCal and went along the southern states, traveling east, taking a detour every once in a while just because we could :)   We traveled the perimeter of the entire state of Florida, and then traveled up the east coast, into New England, and then west along the northern states to Washington and then south back home.  

In no particular order, these are some of the places we visited: 6 Flags in Arlington, Texas; San Antonio, Springfield, IL; Colonial Williamsburg; Gettysburg; Yorktown; Jamestown; Plymouth, MA; Walt Disney World; Kennedy Space Center; the US Capitol; Smithsonians; and every monument/memorial/touristy place possible in D.C.; Amish country in Lancaster County, PA; Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee; Asheville, N.C.; New Orleans; Carlsbad Caverns; Black Hills of South Dakota; Mount Rushmore; Niagra Falls (Canadian side); NYC - Times Square, World Trade Center and a Broadway play (well - off Broadway play); Yellowstone.    And a ton of other amazing places.

We got into an accident in New Orleans (not our fault), but had to stay there two weeks while the car was repaired.   One of the wonderful things about being Mormon is that no matter where you go, you always have "family" - - people you can count on to help you out, if you need it.   So, we contacted some people who let us stay with them in their home for those two weeks.   They were awesome.   And that was probably the best part of our trip - - meeting great people all over the country.   People of all religions (or no religion), races, countries, ages - - you name it.    This country is full of amazing people.

Yesterday I mentioned that this trip confirmed to me what a small world we live in.  Case in point.  We were staying in a campground in North Bergen, New Jersey and taking the bus into the city to sightsee.   One night it rained, and rained, and rained.   That night our tent leaked.  Bad news.   Everything was floating in about an inch of water.   We had to find a laundromat with HUGE dryers!   We weren't sure if we would be able to stay in the tent that night, but weren't really worried about it.  We found a laundromat and while we were chilling by the dryer, we started talking to the girl next to us.    She had just moved to New Jersey.   Where did you move from, we asked.   Anaheim, California, she said.   What???!!  That's where we live!!   Seriously??!  That is so funny!   Where in Anaheim did you live?, we asked.   And she told us - - the same apartment complex that my sister lived in!   How weird is that??!    I told her my sister's name - - they were next door neighbors - - AND - - best friends!!!!    So, guess where we stayed the next two nights?!!    It is indeed a small world after all. 

I think I am inspired now to try to recall more of those trip memories and stories and write them down.   If my daughter is interested in knowing more, then maybe it would be something fun for the future grandkids to read and know that at least once in her lifetime their grandmother did something amazing!  Grandma rocked!!!

Okay, enough of the self-indulgent stuff.    Thanks for coming down memory lane with me :)