Road Trips

[DuckforcoveR]

Thanks for sharing. I enlarged that map, and laughed my ass off reading those names! Pretty funny stuff there. 

When I was 13 years old, my parents decided to sell the house, drive to Arizona, find jobs, and live happily ever after. The drive from Wisconsin was a real eye opener. We played games in the car to pass the time. I wrote down every time a license plate from a different state came by. By the time we got to Arizona, I had all 50 states. There was a horrific storm in Kansas where I saw a funnel cloud outside the car window. 

The radiator on my mom’s Pinto overheated in Oklahoma. We stayed overnight in Amarillo Texas, and I saw cockroaches the size of Texas! Drive through New Mexico and Arizona was hotter than hell. We got to Phoenix AZ. My parents had not done any prior planning and couldn’t find any place for a family of five that was affordable, so off we went back east to New Mexico. We stopped in Roswell, of all places, where my parents found a three bedroom house to rent. 

Roswell was nice enough I guess. We made some friends in our neighborhood, and got a dog. We were there for the 4th of July. I recall really pretty fireworks. I was nocturnal for the time I was there. I would sleep during the day when it was hot, and go outside and play at night when it was cooler. 

About three weeks later, after looking for jobs, my dad couldn’t find anything that paid the union wages he was getting in Wisconsin at his paper mill job, so we packed up, and drove back to Wisconsin, broke AF. Fortunately, my dad got his old job back, but my mom didn’t and had to find another job.

They learned the hard way that if one is gonna move their family of five across the country, jobs and housing probably should be lined up beforehand. But I got to see a lot of country along the way, so I’m grateful for that.

Now that's a trip! Interestingly enough, I sometimes wo Der about the same. Sell the house and leave wisconsin, take the kids on a trip to the South West and start anew. But your story is the exact reason why I haven't jumped. While I prefer my trips with no plan, I also can't bring myself to risk them (if that makes sense). 

But it sounds like a memorable experience even if it ended back in WI! Glad you came back! 

Yeah, I’m glad we came back too. The heat in NM was just too much to take. I think I got more migraines in the few weeks we were there than I had in over a year in Wisconsin. It was miserable for me. I swore I’d never live anywhere that hot, and I hate the desert too. Love the ocean, mountains, forests, but not desert, not a chance in hell.

Agree! Desert is an acquired taste. I don't know how @Guohua does it! Arizona can be brutal (although those folks probably think the same about our Wisconsin winters...)