by Diane Winters

Created on: January 07, 2007   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

My e-mail read: Dan, the dog puked before I got out of California.

Once in a lifetime, and boy, was I ready!

I took six weeks off from work. Told my boss they could hire a temporary worker and give me the time or I'd quit. It was that simple.

I left on my 50th birthday - the day after Groundhog Day. This middle aged spinster lady was going to follow her dream...

The week before I had rented a Ford Wind star with UNLIMITED MILEAGE and although they said it was not permitted, took out the back seat and arranged everything I would need for five weeks of travel from California through the South. I was going to see all the things I had never seen before and wanted to.

Do it while I'm healthy, do it while I can, do it, just do it, do it. Plucked ten grand out of my Home Equity Line of Credit.

Just me and my ugly little dog, Cleo Lucille. Our Big Adventure.

My friends had a big send-off for me the night before, with prime rib and drinks and lots of "be carefuls". Before dinner I made sure to carefully wipe down the windows where my co-workers had written "Honk if You're Horny" in soap. I had maps and joined a few hotel clubs for free nights, but no real plans.

By the time we got from the Coast of California into the desert heading toward Arizona, Cleo Lucille had puked up her prime rib. I hadn't known she was prone to car-sickness.

I had purchased a digital camera and laptop, hooked them up in the evenings in my hotel to send messages home. Dan wouldn't have known about Cleo any other way. My friends were with me every mile of the way.

Long story short: We made it all the way to the Eastern Seaboard, having visited the Oklahoma Memorial and ate my way through bawdy, glittering New Orleans, which now exists only in memory.

Met wonderful weathered old women who sold boiled peanuts and shucked pecans in Arkansas. Back roads, blue roads, blue highways, houses on stilts, an extra day in Mississippi because I didn't know it was that beautiful.

I met some of the most interesting people in the World.

We took the Northern Route home where I passed a sign which read, "You are now entering the Continental Divide". I had no idea what it meant, but the tears flowed freely. Got snowbound in Sydney, Nebraska for three days where I decided if this was going to be the trip of a lifetime, I would check out of Motel 6 and into a room with a spa and fireplace. Cleo loved the fireplace.

I encourage, I plead, I cheer you on if you're even thinking of doing this. I missed all of Florida and the East Coast, but I'm planning it in my heart for later.

P.S. Within a month of returning to work, I quit anyway. They understood.

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