The plan for our second adventure was to take two weeks to drive out to California and back!  We wanted to take a southern route this time.  This really excited me, not only were we going on an extremely long road trip- but, at the time, I was still working, and although I really loved my job- I really, really loved the idea of having TWO WHOLE WEEKS OFF! Having a two-week vacation was like winning the lottery!

We started out the trip by going to Atlanta to celebrate my great nephew’s birthday for the weekend!  Monday was the first day of our official road trip and it meant seeing all new sights and territories! I was so excited!  I think the first day we drove from Atlanta to New Orleans. We arrived there in the evening and went out and looked around the city. It was fun looking around! Poor Mom, she couldn’t just sit back and relax.  I think we had to go in the streets because the sidewalks were too busy.  Let me tell you that cobblestone is quite bumpy to travel on in a wheelchair!  Mom and I were both being pushed in wheelchairs!  The next day we wanted a smoother ride, so we drove through more of New Orleans; it was fun to see all the beaded necklaces hanging everywhere from Mardi Gras!

We kept seeing this billboard advertising a 72-ounce steak! Can you imagine? End of road trip, all five of us hospitalized for emergency open heart surgery!  Then all five of us life flighted home to recover and rest at home! Ha ha ha ha  I love meat, but, I have to admit, that 72 ounces are even too much for me! 

Now I’m going to make you all really, really, really jealous! I have been to an actual place The Brady Bunch went to!  In this episode (I’ll give you two clues) Peter Brady says, “No wonder Dad doesn’t like us to leave the water running“ and Bobby and Cindy Brady get lost.  One more thing thrills me and has given me a happy memory that will last me my entire life! Just typing this, tingles are going up and down my back! I have been to the exact same place where (it’s so exciting I can hardly type it) G Gr Gre Greg Brady has been! Ha ha ha ha  Any guesses?  Do any of you remember the episode I’m talking about? Do any of you think you know where I’m talking about? Ok, ok, ok I’ll put you all out of suspense!  The Grand Canyon! 

It was amazing, awesome and beautiful!  Mom and I sure couldn’t go down on donkeys, and we couldn’t walk to get on the bus/shuttle that takes people on the official tour.  My sister went to ask someone about accommodations for disabled visitors and she came back to the car with a “special access pass” which allowed us to drive the rim in our own car! We got to take a private tour of the Grand Canyon!  It was totally awesome, beautiful and spectacular!  After seeing a place like the Grand Canyon, you know without a shadow of a doubt, that an awesome, mighty and wonderful God masterfully created and orchestrated such a place into existence!  This land of ours is filled with the fingerprints and masterpieces of God!   I’m proud to be an American-the land of opportunities- and will be until God calls me home!  Everyone, we live in a great country, so let’s take care of it, not only the physical land but the people in the country! Let’s learn to get along and embrace and value differences!  Remember, differences are the spice of life!  Think how boring and dull it would be if everyone and everything were exactly the same, BORING!!!!  Ok, you’ll be glad to know that my five-minute sermon is now over! 

One of the things I enjoyed doing on this trip was learning to take pictures on my little flip phone (back in the stone age).  I don’t take good pictures.  I wonder why… just two little problems, aiming and holding the camera still!  I have some great pictures of the car window and trees if any of you would like to see them!  I had fun joking with my family about how I got a good picture of the dashboard or my lap! Do you think I should enter my pictures in the photo show at “Arts in The Alley“?

Another experience I remember quite well is driving through Death Valley.  It took a very long time!  All along the way people were stopping their cars and getting out to look around.  Not us, we kept right on trucking our way through!  I kept hoping we would eventually come upon a McDonald’s or Starbucks- NO SUCH LUCK!  When you’re in Death Valley, what you do for food is get out your shotgun and go hunting you up a great big, whopping rattle snake. Since you’re not allowed to start fires in Death Valley, you leave the snake to sunbathe in Death Valley’s natural hot, hot, hot oven; oh, let’s say 8-9 hours while you go exploring. When you get back, hopefully you brought with you some bread and cheese and you just have yourself one big, hardy feast of a rattle snake and cheese sandwich.  Yum yum!   Eating just doesn’t get better than that folks!  Ha ha ha ha

We were in Death Valley several hours of the afternoon and as evening came the driving got quite tricky (thankfully, I wasn’t driving or we might have really met our death in Death Valley!) We found ourselves traveling along curvy roads with all these people on bicycles.  There was a great big group of them and another element that added even more difficulty is that we were driving in a dust storm!   

We made it to Vegas, time to bring on the gambling!  JUST KIDDING, I DO NOT GAMBLE!  ALLOW ME TO TYPE IT AGAIN!  I, CATE TICKNOR, DO NOT GAMBLE! I sure do hope the pastoral staff at my church is reading this!  SPECIAL  ATTN: PASTOR JAN, ha ha ha ha 

The next day, after we arrived in Vegas, we went for a walk down the strip!  It was really fun to see up close and personal!  We did walk in a casino just to see what one was like but, I guarantee, NO GAMBLING WAS DONE!  You could fit a small neighborhood into one resort, they’re HUGE!  The owners of these resorts need to buy and take over entire Windex companies just to keep up with the windows alone in those places!  Let’s hope it’s the “you only have to go over it once and you’re done, no-streak kind of Windex!”  They need to have a penalty fee for touching windows and leaving fingerprints $500.00!  If you don’t have the $500.00, you face one month imprisonment with picking up trash along the highway assignment!   If you are a role prisoner, don’t get into fights and do everything they tell you to do, then they let you out and you are sentenced to casino detail until you win the $500.00 penalty fee! ha ha ha ha  

What Mom, my three sisters and I did on our trips across the country, we called glamping—glamorous camping! Do you expect little ole precious ME to sleep on a mattress on the ground?  What if my hand fell off the mattress and hit the ground?  Oh, no, no, no that just won’t do at all!  The campgrounds we stayed in were nice hotels!  I loved going to a different hotel every night! My three sisters did the same amount of work or more as though we were camping!  They did it so sweetly, never complained! They would say that lugging in and out all our paraphernalia (I love using big words even though I don’t know how to spell them- luckily for me there is spell check on my computer!) was the only work they had to do, and the rest of our time was spent just driving in the car all day!  My three sisters took AWESOME AND EXCELLENT care of Mom and me the entire trip! The easiest way to tell you what all they had to lug in and out every day is to make a numbered list…. 

1.  Walkers, wheelchairs.   
2. The most obvious thing, our luggage. 
3. Zero gravity chair.  On the last trip we took with Mom she found it to be something that she could sleep on at night.. 
4. I always have to travel with a fan, I need a fan’s noise to sleep by. 
5. We had a large cooler which could plug into the car. 
6. Coffee pot. A fresh, homemade cup of coffee is always so good before bed. 
7. Equipment for the bathroom to make it easier and safer for Mom and me. 
8. Activity bags for entertaining yourself in the evening. Books to read and I like seek and find word puzzle books. 
9. Toiletries.
10. Snacks. To go with the home-made coffee.
11. Supper. On nights when we just wanted to hunker down in the hotel. 
12. Step stool. Occasionally the beds are too high and I need a step stool to get in!          

So, as you can see, we really did take almost everything but the kitchen sink!  My sisters would get a hotel luggage rack to take our paraphernalia in and it would be loaded top to bottom and there would still be items we had to carry!  We practically needed an extra room just for our gear!  I will always thank God for this trip because it was a real special time with Mom!  Long-lasting and special memories were made!  This trip was taken in Feb/Mar in 2016 and Mom was called home to Jesus Christmas Eve of the same year.   

In closing, I would like to say whether you have believed in God for fifty years or you’re questioning and seeking to find what you can believe in… take a trip across this great country of ours and once you see the masterpieces all along the way, there’s no denying that we have an awesome, great, mighty and wonderful God!  Another reason you should do it is that it’s a trip of a lifetime and you’ll make memories to last the rest of your life!  If you happen to need someone to go with you, I’m always available!  Happy and safe travels!