Some inspiration if you desire the ultimate road trip

Published 6:14 pm Monday, July 2, 2007

They watched Tiger Woods set a U.S. Open record at Pebble Beach and came away from Graceland in Memphis humming tunes Elvis made famous decades ago.

From coast to coast, Carol and Phil White lived out their dream: a yearlong road trip across America.

Like many in the boomer generation, travel was definitely on their minds as they approached an early retirement in their mid-50s.

Short vacations away from work had made them hungry for more, she says. “Phil and I always lamented, ‘I wish we could spend more time here,’ ” Carol said. That thought process evolved into “What if we took a year and traveled to all those places and more?”

To give their plan structure, they agreed the trip would include 43 national parks and touch all 48 contiguous states. Then, they established a route that placed them in good weather choosing a southern route in winter, a northern route in spring and summer.

Nice gig if you can make it happen. Six years later they’re still traveling, just not in an RV.

They plan longer vacations, such as an African safari in 2008, well in advance.

Trips around the United States often combine pleasure and business as they promote Carol’s book, “Live Your Dream: Travel for a Year for the Cost of Staying Home.” In it she describes in detail how they accomplished what many folks talk about but never risk doing.

“The difference between whether you can make it happen or you can’t is not how many obstacles you have,” she says, “it is how badly you want to do something totally life-changing for yourself.”

Prices on the gas pumps today are significantly higher than when the Whites left in April 2000. And, their retirement nest egg and pensions were ample.

Still, they did some creative things to stay in budget.

They leased their home in Portland, Ore., for a year to generate additional income.

At Pebble Beach, they traded two of their four tickets (purchased months earlier in a lottery) to the U.S. Open for a week’s lodging in a luxury resort.

Their traveling home for the year was small compared to most of the RVs they saw on the road so the fuel costs were reasonable.

They maintained it well and sold it when they returned to Portland, recouping much of the cost.

On the road they had the flexibility to go where they wanted, she says. “We always had more than a car – a bed, water and food in the fridge – but we could still pull into a motel or stay with friends and we were not encumbered by a big beast.”

The adventure was not without a calamity or two. Carol broke her ankle three months into the journey while visiting Taliesen, Frank Lloyd Wright’s estate in Spring Green, Wis.

“I was walking along composing a picture, stepped in a hole and went down,” she recalls. It was bad. Two bones broken, surgery might be required. Doctors in Spring Green sent her to nearby Madison, where an orthopedic surgeon set the ankle.

By then her leg was so swollen, it could not be placed in a plaster walking cast.

She spent 10 days on crutches with a “boot” protecting her ankle and they continued touring. She used a wheelchair for visiting the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., and other public places.

Once the ankle was in a plaster cast back in Madison, she gathered up her medical records and X-rays and they hit the road. Her insurance company recommended a doctor in Columbus, Ohio, for the next ankle check weeks away. Eventually the cast came off.

Many people assumed they’d just come home after she was injured. Not a real option, she says. There’s always a way, if you really want it. Their travel plan included carrying complete medical records and contact points for their insurance company, just in case.

And, in good times and bad, there were strangers as well as friends extending a helping hand.

“Everywhere we went people were generous and reached out to help us. … It renewed our faith in what good people there are in this country,” she said.

Many of the people they met along the way were curious about how they made the trip come together and the problems they encountered along the way. Back home, they heard many of the same questions.

“There are two things we always tell people. Don’t over plan your trips because if your break an ankle you are going to undo all the plans you made. And, give your trip some structure. Pick a theme or a couple of ideas. Maybe you want to photograph the highest peak in every state or antique your way across the country.

“Then when the times comes and you can’t do everything, you can say, ‘We have to do this because we said it was really important to us.’ “

Although she had not started out thinking the trip would be the subject matter of a book, it seemed logical after all the conversations with people who wanted to know how they did it, she says.

She went to the library; got books on how to approach publishers, drew up a prospectus, and sent it out to 10 major book publishing companies. One nibbled at the bait.

But after a year’s work, the publisher decided not to go forward, she says. Despite the disappointment, Carol believed she had a finished book people would find useful.

Using her professional background in business and marketing, Carol began exploring self-publishing options. She got a few more books at the library, cruised the Internet and developed plan.

The Whites formed their own company to publish and sell the book, which has sold 7,000 copies since the first printing in 2004. She’s debating now about printing a third run or rewriting a new version.

Early on, she set up a Web site (www.roadtripdream.com) loaded with information about their trip, the book, how to publish your own book and myriad related subjects.

Risk-takers who do things other folks just dream about have always fascinated me. I’m not sure my dream would encompass 48 states and 43 national parks, but the White’s adventures did touch base on many places in America I’d love to experience.

I’ve decided the true risk is waiting for the perfect time because one day you could wake up (or not) and find that time has passed.

I hear Graceland is glorious in the spring.

Linda Bryant Smith writes about life as a senior citizen and the issues that concern, annoy and often irritate the heck out of her now that she lives in a world where nothing is ever truly fixed but her income. You can e-mail her at ljbryantsmith@yahoo. com.