Dad's road trip across the country

An email from Dad:

Dear Pintos and Garrett,

I don't remember how much you know so here is the whole trip. This is the message I sent to Kornders, Burchams, Papa Pinto, and Aragon. You can ignore what you already know, or the whole thing, if you want.

Very early on Monday, May 1st we took off in the F 150, pulling our "jellybean" (a 17 foot Casita trailer), on "The Loneliest Highway in the World" (Hwy 50 in Nevada) and made it to Ely for our first night. The road lived up to its name because, though only two lanes, we sped along between large semis at 65 - 70 mph with few slowdowns. Along the way, besides the usual desert scenery, we passed a single dead tree full of hundreds of shoes (in pairs, tied together), and the "Lonliest Phone in the World" all by itself in the middle of nowhere. The Valley View RV Park soon trembled with my snores.

Tuesday, still in the desert but with more sagebrush, I chuckled at a sign, "Elk Crossing" saying to Margaret, "Who are they trying to kid?" Almost immediately, on rounding the next bend, appeared several big ELK along the road!

Now on Hwy 70 in Utah, full of magnificent scenery (a little Grand Canyon, wonderous rock formations) we checked into Shady Acres RV Park in Green River and spent the evening admiring the museum dedicated to John Wesley Powell, the one-armed explorer who first mapped the Colorado River. He was one tough hombre.

My birthday morning started with Margaret buying my breakfast (steak and eggs) at Ben's Restaurant. The rest of the day we explored Arches National Park, driving and hiking from one unbelievable scene to another ("Delicate Arch," "Landscape Arch" which is 306 feet long and could collapse any day, "Balanced Rock" equally precarious looking, "Double Arch," etc.). In Moab Margaret bought her first tee shirt of the trip, some post cards and two root beer floats (one for me).

Onward toward Colorado (We went by a sign warning us about eagles on the highway, but we saw none.) over high passes (one at 11,990 feet) we pushed against a brisk headwind, using lots of gasoline. In an effort to stay ahead of the weather front following us we went through Denver, finally stopping at Limon, CO., for the night.

On the 5th, rolling through Kansas, we passed signs imploring us to, "See the six-legged cow!" or "The 5-legged steer" and even "The largest prairie dog in the world, " but we ignored them all and unhooked the trailer at the Trailside RV Park in Kansas City, where we were to spend 2 nights under ominous skies.

We explored some of Margaret's family history on Saturday by visiting Missouri Central University, from where her mother graduated, and the family plot where her grandparents and some other relatives are laid to rest. Then we went through the "National Frontier Trails Museum," in Independence, full of wonderfully presented exhibits. We were both amazed at the courage and suffering described in the actual journals kept by these pioneers as they headed west toward a new life. We visited a victorian mansion built by a very smart man who took advantage of his location along the Oregon Trail by providing supplies to the travelers. We finished the day checking out the Truman's residence. Here, in the house built by Bess' grandfather, they lived from the time when they were married until his death, except for when he was in Washington as a senator, vice-president and later the most powerful man in the free world.

Hustling out of town the next morning, we cruised across Missouri through St. Louis, stopping at an rv park in Casey, Illinois, taking time to rearrange the stuff in the trailer which had been jumbled about by the lousy, rough roads. On the tv news the next morning were pictures and descriptions of flooding from a heavy downpour the night before in St. Louis convincing us to skedaddle toward DC without further unneccessary delay. We blew by some beautiful scenery (green parklike landscapes with occasional pink and white dogwoods) hardly seeing Indiana, and got to Zanesville, Ohio, and a very scenic spot (two lakes, lots of trees and birds, loud bullfrogs, a yappy dog next door on one side and a solemn yellow cat staring at us through the screen on the other).

Without slowing, except for gas ($$$), we went through Ohio, West Virginia, beautiful Pennsylvania and Maryland arriving at our destination, The Cherry Hills RV Park, two days earlier than planned. They took us in and we connected electricity, city water, sewer and cable TV to the jellybean before wandering through the park's facilities (conference center, 2 swimming pools, indoor hot tub, tv room with a 50" screen and over 400 channels, large laundry room, auditorium, ballroom, video arcade, luncheonette, billiard room and a small store offering groceries, rv supplies and gifts). We like to rough it.

For one day we rested, did laundry, replenished the larder and listened to thunder and the rain splattering on our polished, fiberglass roof, though it let up enough for us to use the nearest swimming pool that afternoon. Our tv viewing consisted mostly of watching the weather channel for a positive forecast.

On Thursday, May 11, we took the shuttle bus to the Washington Metro (like BART) and emerged from their underground station to find ourselves in the middle of the "Ellipse" looking at the Washington Monument in one direction and the nation's capital opposite. The buildings of The Smithsonian complex lined each side in between. Enthusiastically we headed across the huge expanse of lawn to The National Museum of Natural Science, arriving as it opened at 10 am. When it closed, at 5:30 pm, we had seen about 75% of the exhibits in the one building and we were leg weary. With so many interesting, educational things to see, so many school kids on field trips to get through and 12 such buildings left on our list of "must sees," the impossibility of our completing our original plan became all too plain and we had to revise.

Resting our walking muscles on Friday we took a bus tour through Alexandria to Mount Vernon, with stops at various historical sites from revolutionary times. At Washington's estate we joined thousands of kids trying to see how he lived. The line to get into the mansion itself stretched at least a quarter of a mile.

Saturday found us stoutly attempting our 2nd museum (American History) with similar results. We collapsed in the "oldtime" soda fountain over root-beer floats (having covered 2 of the 3 floors) even though there were fewer students to contend with. There is no way to even generally discuss the multitude of things to look at, read about and listen to.

In order to avoid the "Mother's March" scheduled for Sunday we changed trains on the Metro and went to the National Zoo. No pandas but other excellent, well-kept animals were on exhibit. Margaret especially liked the young tigers who entertained the crowd by trying to catch the quick-moving crows and by wrestling each other. The rain forest was a highlight, inside a huge greenhouse-type building with birds and animals living in a temperature-controlled atmosphere. We actually saw all of the zoo.

Stubbornly, hoping to finish at least one museum, we returned to the natural science building on Monday. However, the recently completed Gem and Minerals presentation was too unbelievably dazzling to hurry through. There were not only famous precious jewels (Hope Diamond for one) and strange, exotic, colorful rocks, etc., but the solar systems history was presented in such a way that we both were entranced, watching earthquakes jiggle, volcanoes explode, continents dive and lift along with asteroid collisions and mining displays. Wow!

Since I am a charter member of the Smithsonian Associates we were allowed to partake of the luncheon offered in the dining room of the "Castle" (for only $34). We spent the late afternoon riding a tram which circled the area allowing us to at least see the buildings we had planned to investigate (F.B.I., Bureau of Engraving, Archives, Library of Congress, White House, Capital Building, National Geographic, Ford's Theater, the Vietnam and Korean War memorials and all the art museums) before we downsized. We exited the tram at Union Station so we at least went through that complex of shops and eateries before getting on the Metro.

We joined hundreds of other tourists Tuesday at the Jefferson, Lincoln and F.D.R. Memorials; Arlington National Cemetery (the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier, the Kennedy graves, R.E. Lee's estate, etc.). Then we FINISHED the American History Museum.

Lindsey, thoroughly pregnant Petrea and Garrett drove down from Hofstra on Wednesday joining us (except for Lindsey, who wanted to rest after taking finals and doing the driving) for a stroll through the Air and Space Museum. We saw all of it. Since Lindsey didn't feel well they decided to return north with us so she could have more time to rest and get ready to leave after graduation instead of touristing another day.

After an uneventful trip on the New Jersey Turnpike the kids went to the hotel where Sonya was staying while M & I parked at the Battle Row Campground, a Nassau County park on Long Island (only electricity and city water plus a dump station, but cheap and pretty with lots of trees and space between pads). There we spent another evening nervously listening to thunder and drumming rain.

Friday we took a Long Island Railroad train into the "Big Apple" where we joined Petrea and Garrett in Penn Station (more stores and restaurants). We rode the subway to another museum, accompanying Garrett through the American Natural History Museum, (more upscale and expensive) followed by another subway trip to the Times Square area, where we wandered around doing the normal tourist things (snapshots of the buildings and signs, buying hotdogs from a street vendor, window gazing, jaywalking, staring at the strange looking locals, etc.). By prearrangement, Petrea met us as we were standing in line to buy half-price tickets to Les Miserables. Before the show we ate at a 12-stool deli on Broadway, jostling for a spot to eat our calzones and pizza.

That night we stayed in an 1860's brownstone in Manhattan where a friend of Petrea's was housesitting. You could tell it was that old because none of the doors closed completely and the kitchen was too small for a full-sized refrigerator. In the morning we subwayed to the Battery to catch the ferry for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. A cold rain kept us on the boat while it paused at the statue but we were very close and could see her, along with the multitude of people covering the grounds and lining up to board the ferry, quite clearly. Even from where we were she was impressive.

For a long time I have wanted to visit Ellis Island because it's where my grandfather landed at the beginning of the century. It was an emotional experience for me to see the pictures and listen to the taped descriptions of what must have been a fearful event in each of their lives, like the western pioneers leaving the known homeland for a place they knew nothing about. We caught a late train back to our trailer.

Sunday Lindsey, my youngest child, graduated from Hofstra. Talk about an emotional experience. She was absolutely beautiful, tall and smiling at me in her cap and gown. I almost cried but kept busy getting snapshots of the event.

We loaded her stuff under the truck shell and in her car on Monday, and, after waiting a day for her to rest, (M & I drove to the eastern end of Long Island.) we started west. Six days of driving, plus one day when we stopped near a riverboat casino in Illinois so Lindsey could visit a friend in Chicago, and we cruised into California. (Did you know that there once was a canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River making it possible, in the late 1800's, to ship freight from New York to New Orleans? M & I checked it out that day visiting the site of a lock tender's house in Joliet.)

Good old California where the weather is predictable, the trucks don't fly by you at 80+ mph pushing you all over the road with their jet stream, the freeways are relatively smooth with long acceleration on-ramps, the traffic signs are easy to understand and they do a lot of road work at night or when the traffic is light. No more complaints from me.

Also, this retirement stuff is cool.

I guess I got carried away a little.

See you later,

Ben