There’s No Place Like Home

View Larger Map

Dorothy is right as always but for us leaving home and seeing new places is a constant draw. On this motor home trip through the South and more we have seen a lot, learned a lot, and tried some new adventures.

We fulfilled a milestone. On the outside of the motor home is a map of the adjacent forty-eight states. Anna Lee visited her forty-eighth in Delaware and Jerry put his last state on our map in Kansas.

What’s missing on the map are the two non-adjacent states. We, without the motor home, have been to Alaska and Hawaii several times. Anyone wanting to drive with Jerry to Alaska in the motor home, let him know; Anna Lee passes on that journey. A drive to Hawaii awaits the completion of either the bridge or tunnel.

In eighty-six days of travel we drove through 27 states for 9289 miles. The CRV, our tow car, added a couple of thousand miles. Three states, Delaware, Arkansas, and West Virginia, were just nicked (ten or twenty miles) as we drove through them on the way to somewhere else.

To make the miles go faster, we listened to four audio books. The best was Travels with Charlie by Steinbeck. Anna Lee hated the book when she read it in the early 60s; but, on this trip, the book became a travelogue, history and sociology textbook, and a predictor of the future (meaning the twenty-first century). Now Anna Lee can’t stop recommending it, including choosing it for her book club.

While places and activities are memorable, visits and travels with family and friends are heartwarming. Both the family reunion and the Sippin,’ Trippin,’ and All Things Legal caravan were filled with memorable events. Even visits of a few hours or a couple of days with friends and family were extra bonuses to treasure.

While Anna Lee planned the intended route multiple times, it is the unplanned that always delights us. These surprises include watching the space shuttle lift off for the next to last time, boating in the Louisiana swamp, rafting in Ohiopyle, and the town of Chattanooga. Among the cities we would return to are Charleston, Savannah, Philadelphia and St. Louis. Places that exceeded expectations include the Frank Lloyd Wright home Fallingwater, Graceland, the many botanical and sculpture gardens and the St. Louis Arch.

This was a journey aimed at seeing the South and learning about that part of this country. Our goal was more than fulfilled. We saw lovely places and met wonderful people. The beautiful landscape along the highways and byways in the South are not to be missed. We learned history we had either forgotten or not been taught. While we knew the Civil War was the most significant event for this area, we saw and heard that the war and its political, governmental and cultural aftermaths continue today. Revisionist history is occurring and that is most disturbing.

Having now toured all 50 states, we are happy to call California home and it greeted us with bouquets of wild flowers along Interstate 80. Now we can enjoy remembering the trip through the more than 8000 photographs we have to edit and cut.