Traveling the USA | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Traveling the USA | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marilyn Meiners
05/25/22
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"Hey, gang", mom called. "Let's take a Sunday road trip".

Us kids would always yell, “where are we going?” Mom simply shrugged her shoulders. Didn’t matter much to us kids. Time in the car, on the road, driving to nowhere was always fun. We usually ended up at the home of a family member, good friend, or the ice cream store. All three were welcomed by us siblings.

At age ten we took an actual road trip when we traveled to Nebraska to visit family. Two adults and three children in a car, with no air-conditioning, on a hot summer July day, for six hours. This trip started out fun, but ended up with everyone deflated. We were hot, tired, and weary from sitting all day. Boy, did my uncle’s farm look inviting when we finally arrived. We all groaned as we tried to get out of our cramped space.

I married at nineteen. Our honeymoon was a delightful drive from Illinois to Niagara Falls. This car did have air-conditioning. We were gone a week and it was one of the most exciting vacations I had been on, thus far. The year was 1960. Price of gas was $.31 a gallon. Our motel each night was six dollars. Even then, those prices seemed high.

The Falls were beyond beautiful. Majestic. Riding “The Maid of the Mist” was an awesome experience. Donning our complimentary rain coat off we rode between the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls sensing the power and grandeur of these magnificent Falls.

In 1968 we took our boys on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Watching Old Faithful erupt is a sight to behold. Observing buffalo graze up close, seeing a mother bear and her cubs, moose, along with other wildlife; a camera opportunity for sure.

Navigating a board walk over the hot springs can be a challenge when you have two active boys, who would rather run than hold moms hand for safety.

Our amazing God created it all. The amazing animals, Old Faithful, hot ground that bubbled.

The best road trip my husband and I were privileged to take was in 2002 when we drove from Pennsylvania to Alaska. Yes we drove! We took three weeks for this marvelous trip. What an experience. The United States truly does have some beautiful, awesome places to visit. We traveled west visiting seven states before we headed into Canada. Each state offered a different kind of scenery, a reminder again of the handiwork of God. We traveled through four Canadian provinces before reaching the Alaska Highway.

If you are expecting a nice, smooth highway, forget it! The first one hundred miles into our Alaska trip was on a “roller-coaster” road. Travel was very slow, very bumpy and very dusty. The only good thing about that stretch of highway was the restaurant we stopped at. A family-owned restaurant that made the best strawberry-rhubarb pie. We enjoyed that pie so much we stopped at the same restaurant on our way out of Alaska for another piece of pie. We also received a bit of history about Alaska as we interacted with the owner.

Driving through Alaska is the best way to see the state. You can take many side trips that would otherwise be missed if you were in a tour group. We enjoyed several days at Valdez, staying in a bed and breakfast, taking a one-day cruise to Columbia Glacier, seeing where the famous oil spill happened, observing puffins, cormorants, humpback whales and bald eagles in their own habitat. I especially enjoyed watching the sea otters playing and having fun.

Columbia Glacier is located in Prince William Sound and is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. It is over 550 meters thick and covers an area of 400 square miles. The glacier is the brightest blue you can imagine. We were privileged to watch a big chunk of the glacier fall into the Sound. What a blast! Again, we witnessed the awesome hand of God’s creation.

As we continued on our journey we visited Anchorage, Fairbanks and many other small towns of Alaska, including Chicken with a population of 12! We visited Denali National Park and were privileged to see the tip of Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in the United States.

One scary part of our trip was riding a bus up Denali on a very narrow road with no railing. Thankfully our driver was exceptionally experienced.

We drove 10,750 miles and every mile was worth it.

Love road trips!

Story is non-fiction

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