The Road Trip

Last week, we embarked on an extended road trip that will take us over 2,000 miles through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and back again. Let me tell you about it.

We started last Thursday on our way to northern New Jersey to attend the wedding of a young man we met while living in Hilton Head. He attended school with our sons and often came to our house after school. We loved having our sons’ friends over to the house because then we knew where they were and what they were doing. During the summers, our sons stayed at his house, and his dad became a second father to them, so there was a pretty close bond between us. When we received the wedding invitation, we returned it immediately with an affirmative RSVP, knowing we could build a road trip out of it. The wedding took place in a quaint barn in northern New Jersey last Saturday, and we got to see and celebrate with many friends we hadn’t seen in over a decade. 

Sunday morning, we left the hotel after a leisurely breakfast and bid farewell to the wedding party to head out on the second leg of our road trip toward my daughter’s house in Westport, CT. This delightful New England community is just a couple miles from the beach, although I hardly think of it as a beachfront community. It was great to see my daughter, her husband and our granddaughters again. Because it’s about a thousand miles away, you can imagine that visits are few and far between. This morning (Monday), I’m typing this column from her house on my laptop, which is cumbersome compared to my regular computer, but I’ll get through it. (Actually, I typed this column last Monday, so it’s a week late. I probably pushed the wrong button when I tried to send it to the Editor from my laptop, which I don’t use very often. I told you it was cumbersome compared to my regular computer!)

Tomorrow morning, we’ll leave on the third leg of the road trip to our cabin in central PA, just a mile or so from where Flight 93 went down on 9/11. Longtime readers of this column might remember that this 100-year-old cabin has been in my wife’s family for over 60 years, and it is her “Happy Place” because of the wonderful memories she built there as a little girl vacationing with her Pennsylvania cousins and their family. Whenever we visit the cabin, it’s a “Workcation” because there’s always work to be done to maintain it, but it’s mostly a labor of love; at least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

After a couple of weeks at the cabin, we’ll head due south to VA on the fourth and final leg of this road trip to visit our son, Jess, who’s in his final phase of training for his new job. After an overnight stay with him, we’ll head back home and hopefully arrive back in middle Georgia by mid-June.

So why do I take the time in this All About Seniors column to describe this road trip to you? Because at our age (next month will be #82 for me), none of us should take this kind of travel for granted. After all, probably half of our clients at Visiting Angels ® are younger than us, so we’re very mindful of the extraordinary gift of good health that we’ve been given that allows us to travel like this.

The real test of our attitudes will be when the inevitable time comes that we’re no longer able to pack our bags and leave on a road trip like this, or any other form of travel, for that matter. Because, like it or not, that day is coming for each of us.

I hope and pray that when that day comes, we’ll be able to look back on life’s rear-view mirror and say with grace and thanksgiving, “Those were great days, weren’t they?”

In the meantime, we’re going to “Keep on truckin,” as they say, looking forward to the next road trip, just like Willie Nelson’s song says, “On the Road Again.” I hope you can, too!

Thank you for reading All About Seniors… See you next week!

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column, you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at  https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA