This past month-long travel bout began with my trip to BlogHer in San José and ended with a 10 day solo drive (actually my 2-year-old Neapolitan Mastiff accompanied me on the drive) that differed significantly from my other travels during the past 10 years:
- when I traveled by myself, unlike this trip where I was in the company of Hubby for 3/4 of the trip,
- to and from DC to work with other women for peace and to be a voice of reason, caution, and life as our government rushed into war waged in the interest of governmentally connected corporate interests
- or to and from Indiana to see, care for, or attend a funerals for my mother and brother
I intended to change this pattern of political and end-of-life precipitated travel with a lengthy road trip taken with the Hubby in honor of our 25 years of marriage to be made in the spirit of the road trips we both took in our youth. Twenty-five years is a long time, an increment of a century – and we know that centuries are measures of history not lives; it is at these life markers where daily life begins to meet historic time. Hubby and I both, as brainiacs, wanted to acknowledge, celebrate, and find meaning in this life event. A cruise, vacation, or spa outing might have celebrated and acknowledged our anniversary, but to find meaning in what some see as an arbitrary numeric ritual, that feeds the economy more than the hearts and souls of those involved, took some work. We married in the month of June, but we both realized that this was not apt to be when we would celebrate and commemorate our years together. We knew the trick would be to find a find a time period where we both had no other commitments or could clear engagements we might have. So we settled on late July and on into August as the time. So what did we do?
Kitsch & Weird Stuff
There were pink flamingo trail markers at our wedding that took place on top of Mount Lemmon. It is no surprise that Niagara Falls figured into our 25th – flamingo included! 
Cultural and Intellectual Heritage
National & State Parks and Forests & Just plain ol’ Nature
Family
We visited daughters in Wisconsin and the Hudson Valley.
Salt Lake & New York Coincidences
There were unanticipated LDS connections along the route. 
Canada and Beyond
We had to part ways earlier we had planned while still in St. Catharine because life has a way of getting complicated. I drove back across country with loyal companion Buddy. This allowed Hubby to finish out his conferences and flew back to prepare for school and another trip to the east coast between teaching his first and second class sessions during the first week of school. This allowed me to see my brothers and laugh and lunch with old friends in Indiana as well as visit some prehistoric First Peoples sites, further along in the drive, that I’ve always wanted to visit while taking my own sweet time to do it. I suspect I will be writing about aspects of this trip for many years to come. It was significant, in an idea-connecting way, far beyond anything I could have imagined. We did it right. We summarized and celebrated in ways that reminded us of our life together, our individuality, our successes, and our strengths.
I have a list of topics of some of these article ideas that fills several pages of a legal pad. You will hear more about this trip.
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