Travel Wanderlust | Part 2

Our 1973 Summer mode of transportation…Thanks to the internet you can find a pic or photo of anything. Not our original but looks just like it.

Stuff started appearing on the dining room table. A big Kampgrounds of America (KOA) paperback listing every campground in the US. Camping? We had never camped anywhere, at any time. The large Rand McNally US book of maps as well as state maps for Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri. All brand new, crisply folded, not yet opened. I don’t think I knew the term “road trip” at the time.

Mom’s travel plan began to reveal itself - take the summer to explore the US with two girls under the age of 16 – no we would not be able to help drive.  I remember we complained about missing summer plans at home with friends, swimming, playing. Mom had none of it. We had about a month before we started to travel.

I am not sure “worry” set in but maybe an anxious curiosity.  

How long would we be gone?

You’ll be back when school starts in the Fall.

Where are we going?

To see the USA.

Where will we sleep?

In the new van, there is a bed/hammock across the front seats, one in the pop up roof and another when the back seats are down.

How will we eat?

Over an open campsite, grill maybe an occasional restaurant.

How do we know where we’re going?

We don’t, we have maps.

What if we get lost?

As long as we have a full tank of gas, we’ll never be lost.

Reading maps was a new skill. There were many wrong turns all summer – but gas tank was full so we were never lost. We were proficient map readers by the end of the trip – sassy.  And a skill that has served me traveling in any mode of transportation. Thank goodness for Apple Maps - but those paper maps - they come in handy for the “big picture”.

We were packed and on the road when school ended in May. The trip took five months. We arrived back in Cleveland truant but sassy for all we accomplished. My mother, the teacher, told the schools she had been home schooling us – an unheard of education in urban suburbia.

While I have memories of the destinations – it was the journey I remember most. Traveling with whatever we had with us, we soon learned we needed less than we thought - what is now called minimalism. It is a way of life I have embraced since I have been traveling. 

More on my travels then and now. Please share your travel memories in comments and subscribe so you don’t miss a post or Where’s BabZ | The Podcast.