On September 11 2001 I was working in Riyadh Saudi Arabia as a defense contractor. In January of this year I flew to AZ to reunite with a group of people with which I worked. One of them had lost his wife two years previously and since we both share a love of travel we decided to plan a road trip together. In the interest of protecting his privacy I'll simply refer to him as My Travel Companion or MTC for short.
What follows will be a daily journal of our two month (?) journey through the US. After the debacle that was 2020 I had all but given up on seeing the US so when this opportunity arose I leapt at the idea. Other than the year we spent working together in Saudi we barely knew one another. Can two Senior curmudgeons who are both very much set in their ways embark on a journey of epic proportions and survive? Better yet, will their friendship survive intact? Follow along and find out.
The day began, as all days will I discovered, at 9am because that's when MTC likes to get on the road. My job is navigation and his is driving. I'm partial to Google Maps and have used it extensively so I spent weeks prior to the trip plotting a loose itinerary just to see what was available to see along the way. Being the appaholic I am, I also down loaded other travel apps to assist along the way. Since we don't have to be anywhere on a set time schedule we're free to wander at will. It's the joy of being retired.
Who invented dual climate controls in vehicles? I wish I knew so I could personally thank them. Comfortable to me is 65 degrees. All day long! that's shirtsleeve weather to me, and sometimes even tank tops if I'm being active. Colder at night if I can get it. MTC prefers 70 to 75 degrees. Thankfully his van has dual climate control. It helped to avoid dueling climate control.
On our first pit stop MTC purchased a $10 scratch ticket that paid $20! An excellent sign of our good fortune. We only traveled 264 miles so we reached our motel by 3:30pm. And, both of us being smokers, we rejoiced at finding a smoking room with two Queen beds. The motel was clean, the grounds were well maintained and the staff was friendly. There was even a cute little creek running by the motel which was inhabited by Canadian geese. We decided to order pizza and call it a night. And that's when our idyllic day ended.
I can only sleep in total darkness with no sound. He can only sleep with the TV on and the bathroom light on. Needless to say I got very little sleep that night and we decided from then on we'd get separate rooms. Crisis averted. Tomorrow we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP).
2 comments:
Great start!!
Thanks!
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