THE GOLDEN JOURNEY

I was a naïve, optimistic 19 year old when I married my high school sweetheart. With a vision of the happy tv families of the 1950’s like Father Knows Best or Ozzie and Harriet. We would buy a house, have a family, and live a happy beautiful life with all problems solved in thirty minutes. I have no idea why I was that naïve. My father had died in a car accident when I was 13 and I had watched my mother struggle coping with all that entailed. 

I’m glad to report that I matured, we’ve been married 57 years. I am well acquainted with the ups and downs of life, learning to cope with the sorrow, to embrace the joys. And, most importantly, to Keep Going. 

In 2015 our fiftieth wedding anniversary was approaching and I thought a party might be fun. As I thought about it, I decided it also sounded like a lot of work and expense and maybe we should celebrate together just the two of us, like we had started those fifty years ago thus the Golden Journey was born.

Our anniversary was Oct. 9 and we were scheduled to provide leadership for a weekend retreat for stroke survivors and their caregivers in New Jersey the first weekend in October. Perfect timing. Let the planning begin! We would take advantage of our trip to New Jersey. I began researching places to visit and how many stamps I could get in my National Park Passport 

Plans made. We left Illinois headed east on a cold and rainy Thursday. We ate our picnic lunch in the car in the Starbucks parking lot. After what seemed like hours and hours, we made it to our hotel in the dark, cold rain. For dinner we dug into our picnic basket. I ate oatmeal, yogurt and a banana. Boyd ate popcorn, cookies and coffee. Not much of a start for the Golden Journey, if you’re judging by romantic movie standards. For us, we were together, laughing at the plans that had gone awry and looking ahead to tomorrow. I fell asleep singing “the sun will come out tomorrow.”

Waking up to sunshine might be overrated as we awoke to overcast and foggy conditions but the leaves were turning, a nice touch as we traveled down the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In the afternoon a sign appeared announcing the exit for Valley Forge and we impulsively decided to stop. (A stamp for my National Park Passport) I don’t recall any specifics but I found it all quite interesting. I loved seeing historic places come alive.

Back in the car we headed for downtown Philadelphia where we had a reservation for the night. I had done my job. The address for the hotel was in the Garmin and it would faithfully get us there. We drove through rush hour traffic, again in the rain, heading for 1200 Arch St. but no hotel was sighted. When I called the hotel I was informed it wasn’t really on Arch St.but actually on 12th which was one-way. We would need to drive around the block, forty-five minutes of traffic and rain later we pulled the parking deck next door, a quick supper at Panera’s next door and we collapsed in front of the tv. 

Next time: Thomas Edison Historic Site then on to camp.