My mother was a seasoned traveler. She honed her skills during years of traveling door to door in the farmland of western Illinois, selling silverware, books, and infant seats. You name it. My mom sold it. However, this is not what this story is about. This one is about Florence Myers and how she managed to drive three days - and nights- and get all of us safely from the Midwest to the East Coast in five easy steps.
1. Always pack enough food for every occasion. Breakfast? No problem. Have a banana. And some orange juice. A few sticky buns from the last bakery we stopped at in Indiana. Ditto...lunch. Supper? Well, we might stop at a HoJo's along the turnpike, but Mom's favorite places were truck stops. Her motto: If a man who drove a semi from coast to coast ate there, the food must be good.
2. Always pack as much stuff as you can in the back seat. The smallest person rides in the middle. You pack around her. And when she needs to use the bathroom, you unpack her and then re-pack. Guess who was the smallest person? Obviously the picture above shows four people...and I notice my brothers are not present. Where we put the gear on this trip I don't remember.
3. Drive all night. Drive all day. When you get tired let someone else drive. Take a snooze. Stop to eat. Gas up the car. Drain the family. Head on into the night. I do not ever remember stopping at a motel, or hotel on these trips. One time everyone was just too exhausted to go on. I vaguely remember Mom directing my brother Paul to pull into a place that seemed to resemble a parking lot. We all fell asleep immediately. Sometime in the early dawn someone came tapping on the car window. Mom rolled the window down. Pennsylvania State Patrolman. Ma'am, are you okay? Sure, we are fine. We just got a little sleepy and had to stop. Yes, that's fine, but you see, you are parked in an outdoor movie lot....and you really need to move on. Evidently, we hadn't noticed the giant screen or speakers when we wheeled in there at 1 AM.
4. Always, and I mean always, stop at an antique store. My mother had a sixth sense when it came to one of those quaint little places that were tucked around every corner as we made our way through New England toward New Hampshire. If she was driving she would immediately turn into the place and we would all have to pile out. Except me, if I was packed into the back. Mom would usually find something to buy...and it took some time because she always bargained. Because of her antique habit, the last day on the road often turned into a day and a half.
5. Collect as many maps and brochures about places of interest as you can and stuff them in your glove box. We always stopped at the Tourist Welcome Centers. Free coffee. Free juice. And lots of things to look at. Mom kept every single piece of information she picked up. She was always going to make sure we took a side trip the next time we came that way. Maybe we would add a few days to the journey. I can remember the teenage me groaning silently, trying to imagine adding a "few more days" to an already too long trip.
But even with all the hard times I thought I was suffering through as I made those yearly trips with Flo , there were some things I remember. Just how good a chocolate milkshake tastes at Howard Johnson's when you've been traveling for miles and miles. The sunrise over the mountains in Pennsylvania while you brush your teeth at a roadside park in the early morning. (Mom always called it "the bathroom with a view". ) The green hills of summer New England that told us that we were near our journey's end. And the sight of our little white house up at the end of the road. Shuttered and waiting for another exciting summer. After a long road trip, courtesy of Flo.
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