adventure Archives - Plaid Swan

July 24, 2017

Middle-Aged Wanderlust, Part Two

There is something about being on the open road with little idea of where you’ll sleep next, no notion of what will make you stop the car and get out, no polite interactions with a companion as to what comes next–just making snap decisions on how your day will progress. In 2001, I loaded my car with a few camping supplies, a selection of western and midwestern maps, a suitcase, and an early model of a laptop computer. I had a few places in mind at which I wanted to stop, but I had little in the way of a schedule.

One of my first stops was Oklahoma City. The National Memorial there for the victims of the 1995 bombing had recently opened, and I felt a strong need to experience it. Seeing the glass-based chairs, each inscribed with the name of a victim, is a sobering encounter, and the pictures of it at night have an even greater profound effect. Many people were wandering through the memorial, but it was unnaturally quiet. Visiting this memorial was truly a moving experience.

www.okckidsdirectory.com

There were two kinds of spontaneous stops that I tended to make. As much as I love to travel with my husband, I think that I work hard at asking only for stops that I believe would be pleasing to him as well as me. When you travel alone, you can give in to the whims that strike you – it’s a liberating experience. The two kinds of impulsive stops I made, one of which sort of surprised me, were for artisans and tourist traps. I’m not sure what that says about my character. I don’t want to think about it. I loved seeing the work of local artists, and while I didn’t have much room in my car, I did make a few purchases of jewelry and ceramics. I still enjoy a large ceramic fish hung in a wrought iron metal frame/stand. I usually try to be all grown up and show proper disdain for obvious tourist traps, but the lure is there, and I succumbed on occasion. I spent some time at a buffalo ranch where horse-drawn wagons ferried camera-wielding tourists out into the “wild” to drive among the buffalo for photo ops. I wish I were a better photographer because the one picture I could find of this life-changing adventure was of some teeny tiny little buffalo far in the background of lots of open country. Apparently, I didn’t wait for the optimum moment.

The one plan I did have in mind was to travel up California State Route 1, which is also known as Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway, or Coast Highway. It is famous because it runs along the scenic coast and has spectacular views. I am so glad I did this because parts of it are now closed due to landslides and erosion. This was a truly magnificent drive. At the time, I had one of my first cars with a sunroof, and I drove with the windows down and the top open from Los Angeles to San Francisco. I’d like to say I drove with wild abandon, but the road is not a straight shot (very curvy), and there were a lot of steep drops. Still, it was an amazing drive, and I would love to do it again.

One thing that I wanted to bring home from my trip was a collection of photographs that I could use as inspiration for my artwork. I am the ultimate amateur when it comes to painting, and I am not good enough to indulge in plein art (painting outdoors from sights, not pictures); I need a photo to study. Because I decided to take less-traveled highways after I left California, I passed through many forsaken towns in Nevada and Utah with interesting abandoned buildings. I took many pictures of these fascinating buildings with their fading signage, peeling paint, and rusting hardware. I found inspiration in some of these pictures when I came home, creating more reminders of an excellent adventure

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. So, now I’m fully retired, have a nice low-mileage car to jump into, and have the yen to travel, but my husband is also retired. So now I love the adventures we jump into together. We are comfortable in our retirement, so we can travel overseas or cross country to visit our children and places we’ve read about in books. It’s just another chapter in our lives, and I’m loving it just as much as my spontaneous adventures of the past. There’s room for both in my life.

Diane Repass is a retired tenured assistant professor
from The University of Dubuque and now a beloved
writer for Plaid Swan Inc. She received her M.A. from
The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

May 29, 2017

Middle-Aged Wanderlust, Part One

During my 40s and early 50s, I had opportunities to explore wonderful places in the world like Guatemala, China, and several European countries. I was teaching English and Speech at a small midwestern university at the time, so I had summers free to roam. I am lucky to have a husband who just said, “Go,” and was willing in the early years to stay home with the kids. But some of the most interesting adventures I had were domestic adventures. Twice in the span of a just a few years, I got in my car with a road atlas (before GPS), had only a few thoughts about where I wanted to go, and let the trail lead me. To keep costs down, I had to set guidelines. Lodging rules dictated one of the ways I scrimped; I set a spending limit on the cost of motels (rarely a hotel), and I brought along a pup tent and sleeping bag to further save. That lead to some intriguing accommodations that in retrospect now seem imprudent, but interesting decisions.

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www.wikipedia.org

In Gallup, New Mexico, there is a famous hotel which was the destination of many moviemakers and stars called the El Rancho Hotel. Built in 1937, it is and was a tribute to the old West and sheltered such people as Ronald Reagan, Kirk Douglas, and Katherine Hepburn. I truly wanted to stay there, but, alas, it didn’t fit in my parameters (though there was no lower limit to my price specifications). I decided to treat myself to a mouthwatering steak dinner at the hotel restaurant and find a place better suited to my rules. I stayed at the worst hotel there of any on my travels. When staying at motels, it is important to judge the position of a room to the street entry. Every headlight that turned into the motel shined through my flimsy window covering, and the amount of traffic for that motel set my imagination loose. I wasn’t invited to the many raucous parties going on, which wasn’t a big disappointment, but the rumpled bedcovers didn’t invite me to jump between the covers either. Sleep was at a premium that night.

www.wikipedia.org

Another interesting place I stayed was in Cimarron, New Mexico. Our daughter was working as summer help for Philmont Scout Ranch near there, and I decided to visit her. In Spanish, Cimarron means “wild and unruly,” which captures the flavor of the history of this old West town. There is a great hotel called the St. James Hotel, built in 1872, which also has a roster of famous guests like the Earp brothers, Jesse James, Buffalo Bill Cody, and the author Zane Grey. Many of the rooms are named after these famous visitors. Not all the rooms have baths, which helped me fit this into my budget, but the charming décor made up for the shared common bathroom. There is a dining room in the hotel decorated in period design that still has a number of bullet holes in the walls and ceiling from past sojourners, and the staff is glad to share stories about the apparitions reportedly seen in the building. Unfortunately, I didn’t experience these midnight visitors.

To balance out some more extravagant lodging choices, I occasionally explored some State and National Parks and took a camping spot. I did not bring copious camping gear; I had a gas lantern, a sleeping bag and pillow, a tent, and a blow-up mattress. I had to hope that somewhere near there was a food source since I only brought a small cooler with some sandwich meat and bread. My biggest problem was blowing up the mattress. I had a device that plugged into my car that would blow up the mattress, but that meant I had to stay in the car with my mattress inflating and filling the space. I’m sure it was an odd sight for other campers, but it meant I slept comfortably in my tiny pup tent. I know I was no match for the more professional campers who worked hard to set up their comfortable camping sites complete with travel trailers, outdoor chairs, and campfires; my meager equipment looked a little ridiculous next to theirs. Talking with other campers in the evenings made me feel a bit more engaged, and that always provided a lot of great material for my trip notes, which unfortunately are lost today.

I visited many interesting places from Oklahoma City to San Francisco to Breckenridge, CO, to Pipestone, MN. There is something ultimately freeing about unplanned travel along such famous routes as old Route 66 or California Route 1 along the Pacific Coast. Stopping at whatever place invites me with its intriguing signage was pure pleasure. I’m glad Wanderlust hit when I was feeling adventurous and more daring than I am today. The experience was well worth taking chances.

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