You have probably had enough advice for a while, so I will tell you about one of my adventures. For years my husband, his two youngest sons, and I talked about a camping trip across the country. Year after year this had been put off, but 1989 was the year! The oldest stepson, Bill, had finished at Rutgers and stepson Louis was a rising senior at Clemson.
First we needed good transportation. Husband Bill had an old Mercedes and a small truck. I had an old car, so off to the dealers I went. I bought a fairly new, gas-saving small Honda. So smart! But the minute I drove in the driveway I realized my Honda was much too small to accommodate all those long legs! Louis was excited to drive his car, a 1985 Chevy Citation II Hatchback. I was not so excited about this car of questionable vintage and history. It did have a extra-large trunk!
A problem arose that had been hinted at, but I had ignored. Husband Bill said that he was not going. Of course he was going! I didn’t believed him until June 15, the morning we left. He put a huge bag of zucchinis in the car and waved us goodbye.
We were an odd combination. A fifty-five year old lady and two handsome young men in their twenties with a car full of camping equipment and zucchinis.
This was before many people had home computers. MapQuest was unknown. Forget cell phones.
“King Louie” had bought a Road Atlas and pretty much had planned our northern crossing. He had made a soundtrack for the whole trip of “road friendly music” featuring a lot of The Moody Blues. So I heard music thirty years younger than me the whole trip, but it felt right. We three took turns driving so no one got too tired or sleepy at the wheel.
The plan was to arrive at sister Clare’s by July 4. However, we committed to each other that we would not hurry and stop when one of us saw something interesting.
Our first two stops were at their mother’s sisters’s homes in Frankfort and Fort Knox, Kentucky. We had a lovely time and I felt very welcomed in spite being married to their sister’s former husband. One aunt gave us a roll of high quality paper towels that were wonderful in cleaning up after cooking our meals. I still buy no other brand, in memory.
We headed to Chicago, and I was shocked to see it rise up miles and miles ahead over flat plains and corn fields. We found an interesting, cheap downtown hotel where the owner and family lived on the first floor. It smelled like curry. That was okay. We liked curry!
We didn’t have much money. The boys practically none. Their father and I had promised to do the major funding but wanted it to be limited. We felt like we could handle one hotel room, if it had enough beds.
Louis spied an ad for a bar that was having Fun Night with prizes. There we went and I will never forget the hundreds of women’s shoes hanging from the ceiling. Still can’t figure out why. We liked Chicago so much, I offered to do a second night.
Louis had an interest in the University of Chicago for graduate school, so he and I made the trip to Southside Chicago. On a deserted street, we got pretty spooked by a panhandler who wanted money. That was the last talk I heard about University of Chicago!
Now was the time to leave the big cities behind and find adventure. We had a Coleman Camp Stove, one pot, a frying pan, a cooler, well-chosen food and each had our own tent. I cooked a lot of one dish meals in that frying pan, like cabbage and canned corned beef. Who knew that adding zucchinis to everything could be so delicious?!
To be continued next week.
Jeanette Smith, 95, a Blythewood resident, has been active in the community’s civic affairs for over 50 years.