Life in the Road Trip Lane

It’s like riding a bike…. Road trips that is.   I remember when we drove Route 66 it felt like a dream.  So much distance to drive, so much to see from landmarks (natural and man made) and so much to experience and digest. 

Now we’re on the road again, kind of like a warm up for the big trip this year.   Our first day on the road couldn’t have gone better.  It was tempered by where we stayed our first night.  It isn’t bad but… just not that good.

The road is a completely different world.  Road trippers are generally helpful and polite.  Open to conversations with strangers and sharing not only information but suggestions.   Sometimes a theme develops for no particular reason.   One can generally pick them out on the road; a custom van, clothes on hangers in the back seat, and, most obvious, out of state license plates. 

As we drove, one of the subjects we discussed was retirement.  When we stopped at a rest area in Ohio, MaryAlice greeted an elderly woman cleaning the restroom.  The exchange went something like this:  Woman: ‘How are you?’  MA ‘Great, how are you?’   Woman: ‘Great!!!  I am 82 and going to retire beginning April!’   MA:  ‘That’s wonderful!  Woman:  ‘I’m looking forward to it.  MA:  You deserve it!  We travelers really appreciate your work.’  From my perspective, in my work-a-day world, most people would never have been so open.  But on the road with travelers, communication of goals, accomplishments and life seem to come more easily.

Later we toured the Jim Beam Distillery.  Our tour guide was a woman about our age.   Turns out she’s a retired Special Ed. Teacher.  She’s extremely proud of her one BA and two Master’s degrees. Yet she is very happy to be so active giving tours and enjoying life.

The final cap on our lesson for the day… as we were purchasing souvenirs:  A woman (probably in her late 40s) was going to cash us out but said something about having to leave for class.  A younger woman came over and said ‘Go ahead to your classes!  I am so proud of you that you have gone back to school! I’ll cash these folks out!’   After the student left, our cashier commented that she knows she could also go back to school, but she’s just not focused  on education and if one is not committed to something it’ll most likely end in failure.’

We agreed with her and then said that her time will come.  She agreed, and we hit the road.

Looking back at all this it seems as though our theme for the day was retirement, education and commitment.  

It gave me something to reflect upon.

Now on to more of the same!!