August 3, 2024 —
After months of planning, we finally leave Colorado on what will be a two-month journey across the country, and hopefully toward some answers about the future. We both leave with a spirit of curiosity, with intentional open minds. We’re excited about seeing loved ones whom we haven’t seen since before Covid, and about meeting new people and experiencing new places and adventures we can’t yet imagine.
Our first night turned out to be a little symbolic. And a little cheesy.
Our campsite, at a KOA campground in Salina, Kansas, sat at the intersection between Wizard of Oz and Yellow Brick Roads. As obvious as it was, I still got a tremendous kick out of the symbolism.
It was brutally hot and humid, and we were tired after a long day of driving across the eastern Colorado and Kansas prairie. But we were also full of anticipation as we pulled in to the campground at dusk. We were welcomed by an envelope pinned to a bulletin board at the office. On it were directions: “Take a left onto Wizard of Oz. Right on Yellow Brick Road, go straight. #14 is on the left.”
This was a short stay, just an overnight reprieve from driving before taking off for our first visit with a friend in St. Louis the next day. I walked Liza around the campground, meeting a few stray souls also out for an evening walk. It was my first taste of what would prove to be true later on: People everywhere would be attracted to Lizathedog’s sweet, gentle nature, not to mention the soulful brown eyes (always good for a treat).
In the morning, we perked our normal huge pot of coffee, only to realize we didn’t have time to drink it. So I decided to offer coffee to campers nearby. One Australian in the middle of an American road trip, happily grabbed a coffee cup and came over to our trailer. Another couple, tending their two dogs and a ferret on a leash (yes), were thrilled by the invitation.
”We forgot everything!” the woman said. “We have no dishes, no food, no coffee cups!” Sadly, with nothing to hold coffee, they turned us down. Ten minutes later as we were hitching up, the young man waved me down. He’d come up with a thermos, which I filled. Before we left, they waved again and thanked us profusely. It’s rough for coffee lovers to be without.
Road Trip Lesson 1: If you want to meet your neighbors, walk around with hot coffee.
Before leaving, we took a short detour to visit the campground’s “Roadkill Diner.” The two staffers in the tiny kitchen made us enormous, steaming hot pancakes to go, which we ate by hand in the truck.