Niki helped me sort out my journals stopped and started over the years, beginning with my 1970 journal celebrating our road trip cross-country to California and back. It was the best road trip ever. Dave and I drove through so many states and cities we had never seen before! Highlights were the mountains of Colorado, the beauty of northern California, the wonderful experience of San Francisco, and so many other treats along the way.
It still remains vivid in my mind. It came at such a welcome juncture in my life. I had finally finished my nightmare year at Mannheim Junior High (Sept 1969 to June 1970)….never to attempt teaching again until the fun of coordinating classes at ICLRU in Schaumburg….in 2010.
Dave had been working night and day, every day of the week, to get his business prospering, so this was a well-needed respite for him. Two weeks with the best traveling companion he could hope for! (I did very well with my choice of companion too.) I became the “audiobook narrator” on the trip, reading The Naked Ape as Dave drove. It was the perfect arrangement---he liked driving, and I liked reading and talking. I later explained to anyone we could tell that the car needed a stop for gas about the time my voice was giving out!
Dave will always be my favorite traveling companion. Despite the strong difference in our temperaments (which alas became more apparent as our married years went on), we could always trvel together well. The many road trips with the kids were usually fine once we reached our destination. Those days in the 1980’s offered little in the way of technological entertainment for our cherubs. Games in the car (license plates, cow spotting, Twenty Questions, etc.) only offered fleeting diversions for the restless young ones.
But oh, how I yearned for that open road—new sights, restaurants, time together, all was a welcome break from my mothering/housewife relentless role. I could be a more carefree mother on the road! I remember driving through the beautiful Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, and just wanting to stop and stay and soak it all up….an permanently “run away from home”.
