Memorable Travel Experience(s)

My last of the continental 48 was Delaware and I didn't just want to drive across a State line to get there so I drove down to Cape May, NJ (on my way home from a New England road trip) and took a ferry from Cape May to Lewes, Delaware. In order to know when I was actually in my 48th State, a crew member told me to stand at the bow of the ferry and in 15 minutes I'd be in Delaware (obviously there's no marked State line in the middle of Delaware Bay). I gave myself 20 minutes just to be sure, then opened up a small notebook and checked off Delaware. Only Alaska and Hawaii are left now.

All of the 48 States have been visited as part of a road trip. My first real road trip was Chicago to L.A. via the Grand Canyon, L.A. to San Francisco along PCH, then SF home to Chicago (where I lived at the time). It was the first time that I ever saw something that simply took my breath away. My first view of the Grand Canyon was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen and probably still is to this day (49 years later).

I was on a road trip one November and stopped to have Thanksgiving dinner at one of the few restaurants that I found open. When I finished my meal and asked for the check, the Manager came to my table and told me another diner had already paid for my dinner. When I asked who so I could thank them he said, "I was told that they want to remain anonymous but they asked us to wish you a happy Thanksgiving." I now often pay for another diner's meal with the same provision; I want to remain anonymous. I hope that inspires someone else to also pass it on.

Any time I'm even near North Dakota, I drive to Sheyenne, ND to check on family graves in a tiny cemetery. On my first visit (when I actually found the cemetery), I noticed a small headstone that was leaning against a crumbled sandstone base. I'd often heard a story of "little Iver" but grew up knowing my Uncle Iver so I thought it was just a story. But the headstone was little Iver's, my grandparents first child who died at the age of 7 months in 1904. Their second child was the Uncle Iver I grew up knowing. Since little Iver was born and died in 1904 with no birth certificate nor being alive during a census year, and the headstone was the only "evidence" that the infant had lived, I was concerned that one day it might just disappear. So I tracked down a man who handled local funerals and he helped me have the headstone reset into a more durable base so little Iver will be remembered. Iver Helge Vick, "Our Darling Baby," May 25, 1904 - December 31, 1904.