There and Back Again, Or Not

What’s the farthest you’ve ever traveled from your home at that time? Where did you go?

That would have been my first trip to Arizona, when I was still living in my ‘native stomping grounds’ of the Washington, DC area.

My aunt was still living in the Maryland suburbs. She was also being talked into moving to Arizona by friends of her who went there. My uncle was retiring and my aunt had retired early. My uncle did have some lung problems, that is true, but it wasn’t the right move for them.

They were childless, their pets were their kids. The local kids playing in their family neighborhood would “clack, clack, clack” on their Big Wheels past my aunt’s sun porch and make the dogs bark.

It was driving her batty.

My young, widowed sister had just remarried and was looking to make a big change in her life. She talked her husband into relocating his business. I worked for him.

I was 26 and it was my first time on a plane; I loved it. My aunt’s friends took us to Indian ruins to the south and mountains to the north. I saw a roadrunner and a coyote, (but not together; it wasn’t a Warner Brother’s cartoon!) I was thrilled. Little did know I would soon be in Idaho and Colorado, then later in Kentucky, where there were coyotes, (more here than in the west).

I saw so much! So many different climates, plants, topography! And so much fun being real touristy in Scottsdale!

We were only there a short time. I flew back ill, and the landing gear wouldn’t lock into place. The misadventures of the trip I posted here: https://fourfoxesonehound.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/gearing-up-for-a-landing/

Nevertheless, my aunt had made up her mind before the trip. It was so quiet in her retirement community that she later said, “What I wouldn’t do to hear a Big Wheel come down the street!”

The grass is always greener and in AZ, however, you need to keep it well-watered for it to stay that way.

Possibly the farthest I actually traveled was our move to Idaho from Northern Virginia. It wasn’t from home as much as it was to a new home. I did the driving most of the way in one car with my new brother-in-law, two guinea pigs, a cockatiel and a gardenia; my sister led in a station wagon with her two kids, our mother and four cats. We past so many cornfields going through the Midwest, I don’t see why there is any hunger in the world. In between them were cattle and hogs, all the way into Nebraska, where we experienced unbearable heat, an incredible storm, a fertilizer convention. (Seriously, they partied in our hotel all night long!)

The trip was long and hard on most of the family. We stopped a number of times. We found the prettiest spots in Utah and Wyoming to stay. Both had surprisingly beautiful Catholic churches.

Although that trip  wasn’t from home, it was from what always had been home and I had assumed would always be my home. The road trip was a great experience and for the most part, a lot of fun.

I loved the driving. I loved the different foods, (Oh, the dairy products in Iowa are unlike others anywhere else!), I even enjoyed the different motels. But I was in my 20s, and it was Summer. The move between Denver and Kentucky when I was 39 and it was Winter was not the same.

Still, it was a fun adventure.

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