Road Trip by Gillian

I came honestly by my addiction to road trips. I was introduced to them by my mum and dad. In Britain during, and for years after, World War Two, private cars were relatively rare; gas was severely rationed. But as we staggered into the fifties, our world became a little brighter and Dad took his old car down off the blocks where it had rested for a decade. He worked lovingly on it for some time, then lo and behold suddenly one Sunday afternoon we were off to the Welsh mountains. Before long the afternoon jaunts graduated to day excursions and thence to a week in Cornwall and two weeks in Scotland. There was never any discussion of camping, not a very attractive prospect in the wet cold British weather, but we were on a low budget and stayed in small back-street B & B’s. These were nothing like their upscale modern U.S. namesakes, but simply a spare room in a very modest house, usually sharing the bathroom and breakfast with the owners. In this style we went to many different parts of the country and met many interesting people.

Perhaps, had I not been an only child, I would have hated these vacations and even the day trips the way many modern kids hate spending hours in the car. But I had the luxury of the back seat to myself, without noisy squabbling siblings to dig elbows in my ribs or squash me against the door handle and demand the windows be open; or closed. I never once recall asking, even silently in my own head, “Are we there yet?” I think it was a safe and warm haven to me, shut away in this metal box, just the three of us.

But it was my mother who turned it from an OK activity to something I truly loved. Mum kept up something of a running commentary as we passed through the farms and towns. She loved history and regaled Dad and me, though he never responded except occasionally to glance back at me in the rear-view mirror and wink, with fascinating tidbits about different places; not boring things like dates but little anecdotes. At the time I believed it all to be true, though looking back I’m not completely convinced, though she certainly was a very knowledgeable woman. Apart from history, she would make up silly stories about a farm we just passed, or the vicar of a village church, or the family in a car we met going the other way. There were still not many cars on the roads then, so seeing one was just an invitation to Mom’s imagination. Most of all, she loved to laugh, and if there was nothing too immediately amusing in the vicinity, she would create something. She made herself giggle with some of her imagined stories, and she paid great attention to license plates, making them into acronyms or rhymes.

My mother leaps up in my memory quite often, and usually it’s when something comes up that I know would have made her giggle. During football games, for instance, not that I can imagine Mum ever enjoying football, but how she would giggle at some of the commentary, when they say things like, “He wasn’t doing much when he was an Eagle, but as a Panther he’s really come into his own.” When she stopped her giggles she would then, I know, weave some wonderful fairy story around this failed eagle which somehow morphed into a more successful big cat.

Anyway, having made a short story long, that was my introduction to road trips; followed, inevitable by a hiatus of decades given over to work and family. Then, in celebration of a new millennium, Betsy and I bought our VW camper van and embarked on our own series of road trips. I haven’t had time to count them up, but they must number around twenty-five for a total time of maybe a year, though we rarely are away for more than three or four weeks at a time.

We have been many places from the Mexican border to, and into, Canada; and from coast to coast. We have visited every one of the lower forty-eight states, and camped in most of them.

We have seen sights we had always wanted to see but not had the chance, and chanced upon things we had no idea of. Unlike taking a plane, when the best you can possibly hope for is a journey that is uneventful, road trips are never uneventful; nor do you want them to be, though it’s good when the wonderful surprises well outnumber the bad ones. We have of course had our share of those less positive - flat tires both on the road and in campgrounds, loading up in the morning all ready to go and the van won’t start; freeway accidents only narrowly averted and near misses with tornadoes, hail storms, and forest fires.

I understand that one day in the not too distant future one of us is going to reach the age where camping road trips are not such an attractive option. It’s unclear at this time which of us will reach that stage first, Betsy or me or Brunhilda as we call the van, mostly though not always, with great affection. That will be a sad day, whatever the reason. But one of the blessings of aging seems to be the ability to accept with relative ease that the good times of the moment will inevitably come to an end, but only to be replaced by other, different, good times. We can love taking out our favorite memories and dusting them off for further enjoyment, but at the same time always creating new ones while continuing, with luck, to live without regrets. And I suspect that my most frequently re-visited memories, as long as I’m privileged to have memories, will be of oh those many road trips.

© 15 August 2014 

About the Author 

I was born and raised in England. After graduation from college there, I moved to the U.S. and, having discovered Colorado, never left. I have lived in the Denver-Boulder area since 1965, working for 30 years at IBM. I married, raised four stepchildren, then got divorced after finally, in my forties, accepting myself as a lesbian. I have now been with my wonderful partner Betsy for 25 years.