We are about to depart on our Adventure of a Lifetime. Though It may not compare to trips of friends that cruise the World’s Seas, or travel Europe and Asia on high speed planes and trains, we’ll take this. I always enjoy listening to the fun they had, but none of it appeals to me. Too much preparation. Dealing with airports, lodging reservations, crowds, and long lines has never been something I am comfortable with.
On the other hand, give me a truck, a small travel trailer, and time; and I feel that I’ve got the best situation there is. No schedule, no agenda; just another adventure on the road.
I retired ten years ago. I was asked dozens of times what I was going to do after retirement. Come back as a contractor, sit and watch TV, go fishing, or what? When my answer was to travel, I was always met with “yeah, that’s what everyone says”.
I’ve probably covered this before but here it is again. I don’t know what planted the traveling bug in me. Maybe, as Lee Marvin once sang; I was born under a wanderin’ Star. “Wheels are made for rolling”, Home is made for coming from, for dreams of going to”. I do know most of those lyrics apply to me.
Once an adult, reading books such as Blue Highways, and watching Charles Kuraut as he traveled across America, added fuel to my desire to travel, Thanks to the good Lord, and a very understanding wife, I’ve fulfilled many of those desires.
As we’ve traveling the Country with our Casita, we’ve listened to numbers of tales about Alaska. Stories about the roads, the bugs, the bears, the mud, the rain, the hours of daylight, and of course, the people. It became a destination I yearned check off my list, but it wasn’t possible. Wanda wasn’t about to leave her elderly mom for an extended period of time, and I wasn’t about to leave Wanda. We did make it as far a Banff one year, but all that did was whet the appetite.
Wanda’s mom passed last year, so we no longer had a reason for not going. 2018 is to be the year.
Our plans are to leave home the middle of May, making our way northward as time and weather permit. Stopping where we want, and enjoying the journey. That’s what it’s all about. The journey; not the destination. We want to experience the trip, not just say we’ve been to Alaska. We’ve one reservation, Denali, for the Fourth of July week. Otherwise, we’ll try to chase the blue skies, dodge the rainy days, and make some wonderful memories.
Stay tuned as time draws nearer. I hope to be posting more frequently, depending on internet access as we begin our “Journey of A Lifetime”….jc
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