My recording of “On the Road Again” is safely packed away….ready for another adventure at another time. Now I have dug out my copy of “Hey, It’s Good to Be Back Home Again”. (Thank you, John Denver!) There will be no more adventures for another few weeks….or months….

And, I even hesitate to call the latest trip “an adventure”. Things simply went too well. No problems. No drama. No melodrama. No complications.

From the time we pulled out of the driveway early on Thursday, May 15, until we unlocked the house again late on Friday, May 30, the trip was nothing but a pure delight…..uninterrupted pleasure…..complete enjoyment.

Probably all this praise sounds a tiny bit excessive…..a little bit too good to be true. Well, OK…..maybe I have gone overboard just a millimeter or two. But, nevertheless, it was an almost perfect trip. And perfect trips are not easy to write about. It would be much easier…..and maybe more interesting…..to write about problems, obstacles, and conflicts. I mean…..Let’s put some drama into this. Let’s make it sound intense, dramatic….and maybe even somewhat dangerous.

OK…..maybe I can make some up or invent a few nonexistent situations as I go along. But, mostly, I will stick to the facts.

Fayez Alruwaili….my regular guest from Saudi Arabia….and I took off on a 16 day trip to the Oregon Coast and back…..and to many points along the way. To call Fayez a guest is probably not quite true. I first met him through a foreign hospitality exchange during the Christmas season of 2012. He….and another guest from China….came to spend the five weeks vacation between the first and second semesters. The afternoon that he arrived, I knew the minute I met him that I was going to like him. Now…speak of a tense afternoon….that was one of them.

Fayez was scheduled to arrive at my house around 3:00 P.M. or so. The student from China was already there. I had told Fayez that I would send him detailed directions on how to find my house. NO….he didn’t need them! He had a GPS. He would have no problems finding my house…..he had a GPS! And….the implication was….his modern technology was far superior to any directions I could give to him…..or any map I could draw for him.

Three o’clock arrived……No Fayez. Nothing unusual. Nobody arrives at the exact minute they think they will…..except me, maybe. Then….it was 3:30. Still, no Fayez. “I wonder where he is?” But….it was nothing to be concerned about. He probably got a late start. Kids have a poor concept of time. Four o’clock. Probably heavy traffic. Or maybe he is simply driving slow. He is probably nervous driving all by himself. Four-thirty! Come on now…..drive a little bit faster. Five o’clock!! Where is he? Is there a problem? Has something happened? Five o’clock!!! Things are getting tense. He should have been here a couple hours ago! What should I do? What can I do?! Call the police? What do I tell them? I don’t even know him. Five-thirty: the telephone rings. It is Fayez. He is lost! Thank you…..trusty GPS! “OK…..Where are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you ask somebody? Everybody in Valley Falls knows where I live.”

“What is your address again? ……Oh, I had the wrong address!”

“OK…..I will wait at the corner for you.”

It is dark outside by now.

I put on my shoes…..my coat…..grab the keys to the car…..and set off to the corner to intercept him….or meet him. About halfway to the corner, a black Hyundai goes whizzing past me. I slam on my brakes….turn around in the middle of the road….and head back to stop him. I already know that my address is wrong on the GPS. Yes….he has already driven a half mile beyond my house.

We finally meet….in the middle of the road. Fayez gets out of his car, with a big smile on his face…..just like nothing unusual has happened. I knew then I was going to like him.

And…..he has made my home his home ever since….whenever he has breaks or vacations. Now, however…..he more or less knows where I live.

I tell this not only as a way of introduction…..but also to explain why the topic of a GPS has been an on-going source of (good natured) controversy between us ever since.

Getting back to the trip.

You may be asking….or maybe you aren’t…..how can any trip that covers 4600 miles, lasts 16 days, with 10 different destinations….with the same two people sitting side by side…..be pulled off so smoothly? Something has to go wrong…..sometime.

Let me, as a self-proclaimed master planner, give some advice on how to manage a stress-free and problem-free trip. First of all….All the reservations for campgrounds and hotels were made months in advance. We could walk in, reservation sheets in hand…..pick the keys to our cabin or room….already paid for…..and start relaxing. I have learned this lesson the hard way over the years……having experienced the disappointment and panic of seeing “No Vacancy” signs hanging in windows or on neon marquees. What do do? What could we do? Drive on to the next town and hope for the best……and many times pay a premium price for our stay. I have never had to sleep in my car or pickup in some Wal-Mart parking lot…..but I have pulled into campgrounds late at night with only enough time to go to sleep! And, I have paid exorbitant prices for left-over rooms that nobody else could afford. Now, all this kind of stuff is taken care of far in advance. It requires some advance thought…..and some commitment. But, believe me….it pays off.

Second: Make a detailed list of everything you are going to need on the trip. The more detailed, the better. The day before you are ready to leave…..get the list, start collecting the stuff into a central point…..and check it off as you go. If you do this, there is no last minute “panic packing”; no frantic rushing around, trying to remember all the things you must take….with a hundred thoughts cascading through your brain at the same time. Of course, if you forget something….and it is really necessary….you can always buy it somewhere along the way. Ca-ching….ca-ching….. There goes the vacation budget….and when you get back home…..you now have two of them.

Yeah….it is probably going to seem like a fairly large stack of junk….but that “junk” is going to be valuable when you pull into a campground and start using it. Take only what you know you are going to need. Don’t be tempted to take something because you think “you might need it”….because, chances are……you won’t. Then is really does become “junk”.

Third: When reserving campground or motels….make the distance you drive each day reasonable and realistic. When we drove from Valley Falls to Laramie, WY, we planned for a long, tiring day. We wanted to drive as far as possible…..and as it turns out, there are very few reasons to stop along the way. Get gas. Yes….that is a good reason to stop. Go the restroom….another good reason. Although always combine this with your gas stops….whether you need to or not. Don’t be like the little kid, who says, fifteen minutes after leaving a service station….”I have to go the to bathroom.” At this point, you have two choices: Stop at the first rest stop you see or the first service station you see……or…the second choice: Well, let’s not even talk about it. And, as for me…..rest stop were very welcome places.

Also….remember that when you finally get into “vacation country”….where there is actually something to see…..you will want to stop and look….and take pictures….. This takes up time. Plan for it! You didn’t go on vacation just to desperately try to make it between two widely separated arbitrary points before the sun goes down. You are on vacation to relax…..to stop and enjoy the scenery, to take pictures that will remind you of the fun you are having…..or maybe even to do a little bit of exploring. You’ve heard the expression, “Stop and smell the roses.” In this case…..stop and smell the sage brush….or the forests…. Or just stand and sniff the air for a while. Surely you are going to smell something….

If you take the attitude…..”Hurry up. Drive faster. We are never going to make it before dark.” When you do arrive, you are going to be worn out….probably in a foul mood….and asking yourself, “Where am I? What did I see today?”

“Hey…..let’s download our pictures and look at them on the laptop.”

“Oh, yes. I guess we don’t have any pictures. We didn’t stop and take any.” Are we having fun yet?

That brings me to the fourth suggestion. Take your camera with you…..and takes lots of pictures. Pictures of everything. Take lots of pictures of the scenery….and of your traveling companion(s)…..and yourself. No, this is not being vain. This is how you are going to remember your vacation in the future…..five….ten years from now. These are the pictures you will share with your grandchildren. (No, I am not suggesting that I have some grandchildren hidden away somewhere!) But, in the age of digital cameras, there is really no excuse for not taking lots of pictures. They are free! They don’t cost anything. And, later on you can always delete the ones you don’t want. You know….the ones with the stupid expression on your face….or the ones you took of your foot. In the care of Fayez and me, I took more than 1500 pictures. Fayez? I don’t know maybe 15. But, I didn’t mind. I am probably the best photographer.

I have been traveling for many years. In the “olden” days, it was expensive to take pictures. You had to buy the film…..and then you had to have the film developed. And, even worse….and this was my problem….have the slides developed. Of course, back in those days, I was careful to plan my shots carefully and take pictures of only the bare necessities…..and then only ONE shot. But, now I can….and do…..take hundreds of pictures. Pictures of everything. One….two….three…. It is a luxury that I do not hesitate to take advantage of. “Hey, Fayez…..smile for the camera.”

My fifth suggestion…..and maybe I am getting a little picky now….is to do some advance planning on meals. Where are you going to eat? What are you going to eat….and where are you going to eat it? Are you going to eat all of your meals “out”? If so….no problem. There is no need to take any sort of food or cooking utensils with you……only a lot of extra cash.

As for Fayez and me……we decided prepare most of the food ourselves……that we would eat breakfast in our camping cabin…..raisin bran, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and coffee. So…..we took along our electric water boiler….a couple boxes of raisin bran, some instant coffee, some peanut butter, some jelly, and some bread. …….And….plastic spoons and knives and forks. And, disposable paper bowls. Who wants wash dishes while on vacation? Not me. I don’t even like to do them when I am at home. And, artificial sugar for me. And…..paper towels. Don’t forget this. They are going to be one of the most valuable things you take. Cooking while camping can get messy sometimes.

This may sound like a lot…..but it really isn’t…..and there is more to come yet! The milk will keep for two or three days in a refrigerated cooler. The other stuff fits easily into a plastic storage container…..or two…..or three.

For lunch lunch, we were perfectly satisfied to eat a sliced meat and cheese sandwich and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We even had the division of labor planned in advance. Fayez was the peanut butter and jelly chef…..and I was in charge of the sliced meat and cheese…..and the mustard (for me) and the catchup (for Fayez.) We had as assembly line operation working for us……and the result? A gourmet meal for every lunch.

Supper was a no-brainer. Fayez loves to cook over an open campfire. And, I love to eat whatever Fayez prepares over an open campfire! A winning combination. Even in this case, it required some advance planning. We brought along a campfire grilling basket…. one of our more valuable possessions. We brought a double-pronged hot dog stick. And, we brought along our rice cooker. Why our rice cooker? Because we both like rice, I suppose. And, because it is versatile. Rice can be eaten with so many different foods. It was a very wise decision. We used it often. Cooking is not allowed in the camping cabins. No problem……we brought along our own extension cord, which reached from inside the cabin to the picnic table outside. See? Just a little bit of advance planning can pay off in a lot of ways. We could have probably opened a mini-restaurant in each of the campgrounds and sold food to the other campers. Yes….it was that good.

The final ingredient to a successful trip? Maybe this is the most important factor of all of them……pick a good traveling companion(s). Everything else can go right….but if you do not have a great traveling companion….the entire trip can be misery. Just think: that person will be sitting less than a foot from you for the entire journey…..whether it is one day…..or one month. I don’t even want to think about the suffering and torture of spending that long with someone I don’t like…..or can’t get along with.

But….for me: That was definitely not the case. One of the greatest joys of the trip was spending time with Fayez. From the time we left my house until the time we arrived home, it was one continuous party. First of all….Fayez is a good natured, sympathetic, social person…..and he is smart. We never ran out of things to talk about.

I said he is a social person….that he is. But, he is also funny, even silly, at times. And, he loves to tease. In fact, some times, he is relentless! There was more than one time that I felt like kicking him in places where it would really hurt a man! But…..I also know that if he didn’t like me, he wouldn’t go to such lengths to make my life miserable! No….not really miserable. Well, now that I think about it…..maybe sometimes. And….Fayez and “take” as well as he can “give”. And, I probably wasn’t entirely innocent myself when it comes to teasing…..although a little more innocent than he was!

Both of us have a very wide range of interests. And both of us are willing to listen. We certainly do not agree on everything…..but we listen and respect each other’s opinions. Who wants to be with someone who always agrees? A constant “Yes” man. Lively discussions are interesting….they are informative….they are challenging…..they are fun.
I learned long ago to always keep discussions and conversations like these at the “discussion” stage….and never let them escalate to anything more serious. Both of us have mastered this lesson. Such discussions….even though they may sometimes look somewhat heated….always end with a smile….. Time to go on to the next subject!

Another important prerequisite for a good traveling companion is patience….or at least, tolerance. Ask Fayez…… He will probably tell you that he possesses more of this characteristic than I do. I don’t know…..maybe so. Often I am not the most patient person in the world…..but I am tolerant. Actually, this combination can work out well. One person taking the cool, “don’t worry, everything is going to work out OK” approach; and the other person (me) with the “come on, let’s get this done” or “why doesn’t this stupid thing work” approach. It’s all a balance.

Whatever all the components are…..they seem to work. As we discussed the trip and tried to think of some conflicts or problems or dramatic moments to write about…..neither of us could think of even one. And….that is the way it should be.

It is better to spend most of the time laughing and being silly than it is to be arguing and fighting.

Oh yes…..one more thing. And, the credit definitely goes to Fayez for this one. It was his suggestion….and a good one. So….chalk up one point for Fayez! It is far better to take dry ice than it is to take ordinary ice. Dry ice is infinitely neater…..no messy water to ruin food. No water to pour out in some inconvenient place. Dry ice is colder….and thus keeps the food cooler. Dry ice lasts longer.

I know….you are saying….”Where in the heck am I going to find dry ice?” Take my word for it….it is available. You may have to search a little bit….but it is available. It may cost just a little more…..but it is available. We had no problem finding dry ice….and neither will you. Given the choice…..I would always prefer dry ice.

Just a caution…..or warning….. Dry ice may be deadly to your health! That is what a friend of mine warned me. I had never heard this before….and quite frankly, I was skeptical. But as his reasoning went…..and I suppose it is probably true….. Dry ice is pure carbon dioxide. As the dry ice evaporates….or whatever it does…..it replaces the oxygen in the air…..and potentially a person could suffocate or “drown” because of this.

Well….I don’t know if this is true. I have used dry ice before….but we have always kept the cooler in the back of my pickup. But, since suffocating due to carbon dioxide was not part of our plans on this trip…..we decided to exercise caution and keep the cooler in the trunk of the car. No point making risking it…..and making some people happy to be reading my obituary…..and saying, “Oh well….he is seventy-five years old. He has lived long enough. And…..why didn’t he have enough sense to put the cooler in the trunk?”

There you go…..my plan for a near-perfect vacation. It works for me.

Next time……we will really be “On the road again.”