The Coming Road Trip

During which HG and I will explore Vegas, canyons, caves and cooties.

I’m taking my boy on a road trip very soon. Not a long one. But just long enough for him and I to get so close it might hurt, have some fun, see some important things, and miss his mother. My inspiration for this road trip comes from what happened in 1971.

In 1971 my father, George, was diagnosed with a disease that he was told would likely eventually kill him. He didn’t have a whole lot of time left. But there was enough for him to plan a family road trip. It was an epic adventure for this then 8-year-old boy.

George had a good deal of insurance on his life, so spending most of his savings was possible knowing that life insurance would eventually take care of his family. So, he planned something monumental.

We began by flying to Michigan and showing up at the Oldsmobile auto factory where George and his wife Alverna took possession of a brand new Custom Cruiser Station Wagon as it rolled off the line. Looking back from the perspective of experience, I still have no idea why George did this rather than just buying a new car at home in Novato, California. But there we were in an airplane heading for Michigan to buy a car.

From Michigan, the trip took us through the Midwest, to Gettysburg, to Boston, down through New York and Philadelphia, on to Washington, DC, West to Cincinnati to visit with relatives, then on to Springfield, Illinois where my father returned to celebrate his college days, then up to the national parks and monuments in South Dakota, continuing west through Wyoming, then to Salt Lake City and eventually on home to Novato, California.

It was a two-and-a-half-month affair during which George, Alverna, sister Karen, and I survived without anyone getting hurt or killing each other.