Milepost 44........

Forty four years ago tonight I was sleeping outside in the central valley of California with several of my best friends. Oh, not in the woods. The smell of peaches was heavy on the warm summernight air and we were stretched out on sleeping bags on the lawn of a country frame house a few miles north of Modesto. The friends were my groomsmen and the house belonged to Roy and Opal Blakeley, who within 24 hours would be my in-laws. At 8 PM the next evening with the temperature about 105 degrees, I would exchange vows with their eldest daughter, Ruth. That began the second greatest adventure of my life.

On our wedding night, the traditional "chase" ensued, as we embarked on a week-long honeymoon. Most folks faded back after a few miles,when we pulled onto Highway 99 toward San Francisco....except, of course, for Stan on the motorcycle. If nothing else, he was focused. A gentle-but-enthusiastic soul, he followed us---as I recall--- all the way to the Dumbarton Bridge, which crosses the south end of San Francisco bay. The toll booth apparently proved his undoing.

We traveled that week from Palo Alto to Strawberry Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains...then to Long Beach in the south to catch the ship for Catalina Island...back up the coast and to Modesto again. That journey by car was the first of tens of thousands of miles we would travel by car with maps and sandwiches and kids....up and down the West Coast, back and forth across the United States. Always an adventure, never a dull moment.

We traveled with kids well before seat belts, car seats, private videos and bottled water. No vans, just station wagons that got 12 1/2 miles to the gallon and were crammed to the hilt with suitcases and other paraphernalia. Anywhere we drove, it was "Grapes of Wrath" re-visited.

We had a thought for a family car design: sleek and fuel-efficient, self-cleaning windows from the inside, and a loop tape that played "Sit back and stay on your side of the line,"We will be there when we get there," and " If you do that again we're stopping the car!"

When we married, Ruth was tall, sandy-haired, slim and green-eyed. I was tall, brown-haired, slim and hazel eyed. She is essentially the same, with hair color varying now and again. I, on the other hand, have grown quite round and hair has flown the coop. Maybe it was all those car trips with the window rolled down. The roundness of course is explained by the fact that food loves me.

Could not imagine that 44 years after the fact, I would reflect on these matters by means of a thing called a personal computer over a system called "the internet" through a mechanism called a blog. And, it is light years from a Chevrolet Corvair to a Toyota SUV. Washington DC in 2007 is a universe away from rural California in 1963.

If I thought the ride on the Blue Mountain Express was great with lush valleys, flowered hillsides, persistent switchbacks, steep gradients, and spectacular vistas...it's nothing compared to 44 years with Ruth.

I really had no idea it would turn into such an adventure, just trying to get away from Stan on the motorcycle.

What are we doing to celebrate our 44 years together? We leave in the morning for a bed and breakfast in the Tidewater area of Virginia.

We'll be driving.