Whenever Tom and I drive across the country, I always think of an old television show:  Space Ghost Coast to Coast.  In case you are not familiar with Space Ghost Coast to Coast, it was the first cartoon show moved to Adult Swim.  The cartoon was a revival of Space Ghost, an old Hanna-Barbera superhero.  In Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Space Ghost hosted a parody of a talk show with Moltar and Zorak, two friends from outer space.  I thought the show was very funny.  You can watch a bit of it here but the funniest shows are in the final seasons.

Coming out to Arizona meant another drive across the country:  Tom and Karen and Space Ghost Coast to Coast.  When we got to I-40 in Oklahoma, I couldn’t resist singing my favorite Brak (a Space Ghost supervillain) song, “I’m Driving Down Highway 40 in My Big Old Pick-up Truck.”  It is an incredibly silly song – if you watch it here you will be singing it the rest of the day.  But it is also very appropriate as Tom and I drove down I-40 in our big old pick-up truck.  Hey – driving across the country can get boring and a little silliness helps liven things up.

Another thing I do as we drive across the country is take pictures of the welcome signs from each state we enter.  Then, if I have a cell signal, I send them to my family.  This helps them follow our progress and know we are thinking of them.  Connected even as the miles pile up between us.

Tom and I usually try to take a few extra days for a trip across the country.  I don’t like to travel much more than 300 miles per day.  We are retired – what is the point of rushing by everything?  This trip was faster than usual.  We had to be at Pipe Spring National Monument to start training on May 14.  But we didn’t find out about the arrival date until we had already made appointments for May 8.  So we pulled out first thing May 9 and drove about 500 miles a day to arrive at Pipe Spring on May 13.

We stopped overnight near St. Louis Missouri, Oklahoma City Oklahoma, Albuquerque New Mexico, and Flagstaff Arizona.  During the day we only stopped long enough for diesel and stretching our legs.  We arrived at Pipe Spring at noon on May 13.  It was a fast trip, but Tom and I enjoyed the time together.  I warned him, however, that we would not be going back to Ohio as quickly in the fall.  We passed way too many National Park sites and I need my stamps!