In the spirit of Mother’s Day, I’d like to share my most memorable trip with my mom. Growing up, as a family we always took short road trips departing from our Buffalo-area home, whether it was to Titusville, Pa., to meet up with my mom’s childhood friend and her family, or around Western New York. Our vacations were typically focused on loading up the car and driving south over Spring Break to spend it with Grandma and Grandpa in Sarasota, Fla.
Seeing the U.S.A. in My Chevrolet
In April 1994 my new, blue Beretta was loaded up with essentials, including my beloved Diamond Back mountain bike. My mom and I departed Western New York and hit the road for Yellowstone National Park. I had recently returned home from my first (and only) winter working in the park and was entering my fourth summer season. I had dreams of living and working there year-round and at the age of 23 going on 24, I finally jumped into car ownership.
Since this was my first extended road trip, my mom traveled with me to see the country and make sure I safely reached my destination. Plus, she always made sure the car doors were locked…
Mom did all of the driving while I provided what navigation I could – this was in pre-GPS days and a time when we relied on AAA TripTiks and paper maps – as we traveled for five or six days along I-90 seeing America’s Heartland.
With my aging mind, my memory is a little fuzzy with the details but some of the things I remembered about that trip includes needing to have a crazy amount of change to pay for tolls in the Chicago area; stopping to see Touchdown Jesus at Notre Dame Stadium, Wisconsin Dells and Walnut Grove, Minnesota, home of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. The Mitchell Corn Palace (South Dakota), Mt. Rushmore, the insanely huge Mall of America (Bloomington, Minn.) and Devil’s Tower National Monument were also visited during the trip along with seeing friends I had met while working in Yellowstone.
Most memorable was our extended stay in Wall, S.D., due to a snow storm. We spent two nights in Wall, famous for Wall Drug which serves up free ice water to thirsty travelers in a huge (as in 76,000-square-feet huge) attraction complex with dining, shopping and quirky little exhibits. My bike had iced up and we placed it in the bathtub to defrost while we went out exploring Badlands National Park and Buffalo Gap National Grasslands once the road cleared.
At the journey’s end, I dropped Mom off at a bus station in Idaho where she began her own 48+ hour adventure of taking Greyhound back to Buffalo.
Mom has always encouraged me to get get off-the-beaten path both figuratively and literally and she continues to nurture my inquisitive nature. During this trip, it was just the two of us and we connected on another level. I was no longer a child but an adult and she was no longer just a parent but a friend.
Happy Mother’s Day! Have you ever taken a road trip with your mom?
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