A Lap Around America

by Shawn Inmon

  Just a few miles further on, we saw a small herd of elk grazing in a field.

  We thought that might be it for the day, but the highlight came a few miles before we exited the park. We noticed cars were slowing, but not stopping ahead of us. When we caught up to them, we saw there was a herd of buffalo walking on the shoulder of the road. We passed one that had to be the old bull of the herd. He was massive, and he gave us a bit of the old fish-eye as we passed him. He was maybe five feet away.

  I don’t think he trusts us

  We left the park and turned north, toward Montana. Since it was our anniversary, I picked a better class of hotel in Bozeman, which was a contrast from the dozens of squat little roadside motels we’ve stayed on during the trip.

  Day Fifty-Six

  When I was a small boy, I used to help my father on our farm after he got off work. One of our chores was to go out in the field and collect the horses that had been grazing all day. They were often a little reticent to move at first, but when they saw that open barn door and remembered that their oats waited them just inside, they would move from a walk to a trot, to a gallop.

  The story is the same for Dawn and I today, but we were the ones heading for the barn door. We woke up in Bozeman and realized that Washington was less than a day’s drive away. So, on Day Fifty-six, that’s what we did—we drove.

  This was the moment we gave up the pretense that we were on a trip, and ran for home. Dawn has been homesick for weeks, and with the change in the weather, I admit I was ready to nestle in to our little seaside cottage and hunker down for the winter.

  There are places we were interested in seeing in Montana. For instance, I used to live in Hardin, Montana, which is right next to the Custer Battlefield, where the Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought. It’s a fascinating place, but we would have had to backtrack half a day to see it.

  Instead, we drove all the way through western Montana, across the top of Idaho, and across eastern Washington. We drove right by the Petrified Forest we had seen on Day One of the trip, That felt like a symbolic completion of our Lap Around America.

  Day Fifty-Seven

  Realistically, we could have made it all the way home yesterday, but that would have gotten us home late in the day, and without our pets. While we have been traipsing around the country, our friends and family have been watching them.

  So, we woke up early in Ellensburg, ready to pick up the pets and get home.

  We stopped at our daughter Samy’s house in Tacoma to pick up our little white kitty, who we call Georgie Girl. Being so perfectly a cat, she failed to notice that we had been gone for two months. We love her anyway.

  Our next stop was at our friend Jeff’s in Rochester. Jeff stepped up and took care of our two old Chocolate Labs, Hershey and Sadie. The dogs more than made up for Georgie’s lack of appreciation. We thought they both might die of happiness at seeing us after so long. Seeing how much they missed us, we promised them we would never leave them for that long again.

  Our turtle, who we call Kumar, is with our daughter Connie, but we decided to wait a couple of days before we retrieved him.

  We turned the Silver Bullet westward one last time. Two hours later, we were home. Or, at least what was kind of home. We had never spent so much as a night in that house, and there were boxes stacked to the ceiling everywhere.

  The most important things were there, though. My love, Dawn Adele, our fur-faced babies, and our comfortable bed. After eight weeks, 13,689 miles, a few sunburns, and a thousand indelible memories, we were home.

  Afterword - March, 2017

  I am sitting in my office in that same little cottage we returned to last October. The sun is shining, and Dawn and I are just about to go for a walk on the beach. Hershey, Sadie, Georgie and Kumar are all healthy, as are we. I spend most of my days sitting in this same spot, writing my stories and books. Life is good.

  One year ago, I was a real estate broker, managing a few dozen other brokers. I was more stressed out, but life was good then, too, albeit more hectic. These days, Dawn and I don’t do one darned thing we don’t want to do.

  If we could do it all over again, would we? Would we quit jobs we liked, throw our clothes in a suitcase and set out to drive around America? Would we give up the certainty of a life in the workaday world in exchange for time, freedom, and an uncertain financial future?

  Yes. In a heartbeat. My only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner.

  Our lap around America taught us and showed us so much. The breadth of beauty in our nation is almost unimaginable until you see it all first-hand. The character of the people, living in cities, small towns, on farms and in seaside villages, is inspiring. I came back from this trip with a notebook full of ideas to write about, and those all traced from the people we met in our travels.

  Our nation has been one of conflict since the first Europeans arrived centuries ago. I recently read an opinion that our nation has never been more deeply divided. I would send that person to Gettysburg, to witness the price so many paid, and ask them if they still thought that. Our nation has been divided before. I am old enough to remember the sixties, which saw the killing of two Kennedys, and Dr. Martin Luther King. I witnessed the protests against the Vietnam War, which nearly tore our country apart. And yet, we survived. I have no doubt we will solve this divide as well, and we will be stronger for it.

  For you, my friend and reader, I want to thank you for taking this trip with us. It was life changing for Dawn and me. My fondest wish would be that some part of our story might inspire you to explore something in our great country that you have never seen.

  Shawn Inmon

  Seaview Washington

  March, 2017

  Acknowledgments

  No book is written in a vacuum, and this is certainly no exception. I had a lot of help, both on the “real life” and the publishing front.

  Dawn and I have four pets, and if we couldn’t have found trusted people to care for them while we were gone, the trip never would have gotten off the ground. So, special thanks to our daughters Samy and Connie, and our old friend Jeff, for taking such good care of Georgie, Hershey, Sadie, and Kumar.

  I worked with a new editor on this book, which is a nerve wracking thing. Trusting someone new with the words I’ve written isn’t easy. I am fortunate to have found Doreen Martens, as she has been the best steward for my words that I can imagine. She often made me laugh with her comments, and her ability to untangle what I tried to say, and produce something that makes sense, is unparalleled. This was our first time working together, but will not be the last.

  My cover artist, Linda Boulanger, on the other hand, is used to dealing with me and my idiosyncrasies, and yet she keeps coming back for more. I don’t know which I appreciate more, Linda’s creativity, or her stubborn unwillingness to rest until everything is perfect. She came up with the idea for this cover of the long road leading off into the map, and it represents the book perfectly. She also formatted the book for me, whereby she takes a Word document and makes it look like a book.

  Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to Debra Galvan, my sharp-eyed proofreader. No matter how many drafts a book goes through, some errors slip through to the end. Debra is my final defense against these typos and other mistakes, and she does a fabulous job.

  More than anything, I would like to thank Dawn, my long-suffering wife who has to listen to all my bad jokes and my insufferably cheerful attitude first thing in the morning. Without Dawn Adele’s unflagging support, this trip, this book, and my whole writing career would never have materialized.

  As always, my most important thank you is reserved for you, my reader. You are the reason I work every day to be a better writer, and to think of new and better stories.

  Also by Shawn Inmon

  Feels Like the First Time

  A true love story of loss and redemption, set in the ‘70s.

  Both Sides Now

  The flip side of Feels Like the First Time, told from D
awn’s perspective.

  Rock ‘n Roll Heaven

  Jimmy Velvet dies, but wakes up in the presence of the greatest icons in rock ‘n roll history.

  Second Chance Love

  Steve and Elizabeth were best friends and undeclared lovers, until fate separated them. Twenty years later, they have a second chance, if they are strong enough to take it.

  The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver

  What if you could do it all again? Thomas Weaver dies, but awakens in his teenage body and bedroom, all memories intact. it.

  Life is Short

  A collection of 13 short stories that reinforce the idea that life is, indeed, short.

  Copyright

  A Lap Around America

  By Shawn Inmon

  ©2017 by Shawn Inmon

  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means without prior written permission of the authors, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

  Kindle Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author.

  All photographs copyright 2016, Shawn Inmon and/or Dawn Inmon

  Cover Design/Interior Layout: Linda Boulanger

  Tell~Tale Book Covers

  Published by Pertime Publishing

  Table of Contents

  A laundry room, somewhere in Louisiana

  Day One

  Day Two

  Day Three

  Day Four

  Day Five

  Day Six

  Day Seven

  Day Eight

  Day Nine

  Day Ten

  Day Eleven

  Day Twelve

  Day Thirteen

  Day Fourteen

  Day Fifteen

  Day Sixteen

  Day Seventeen

  Day Eighteen

  Day Nineteen

  Day Twenty

  Day Twenty-One

  Day Twenty-Two

  Day Twenty-Three

  Day Twenty-Four

  Day Twenty-Five

  Day Twenty-Six

  Day Twenty-Seven

  Day Twenty-Eight

  Day Twenty-Nine

  Day Thirty

  Day Thirty-One

  Day Thirty-Two

  Day Thirty-Three

  Day Thirty-Four

  Day Thirty-Five

  Day Thirty-Six

  Day Thirty-Seven

  Day Thirty-Eight

  Day Thirty-Nine

  Day Forty

  Day Forty-One

  Day Forty-Two

  Day Forty-Three

  Day Forty-Four

  Day Forty-Five

  Day Forty-Six

  Day Forty-Seven

  Day Forty-Eight

  Day Forty-Nine

  Day Fifty

  Day Fifty-One

  Day Fifty-Two

  Day Fifty-Three

  Day Fifty-Four

  Day Fifty-Five

  Day Fifty-Six

  Day Fifty-Seven

  Afterword

  Other Books by Shawn Inmon

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  A laundry room, somewhere in Louisiana

  Day One

  Day Two

  Day Three

  Day Four

  Day Five

  Day Six

  Day Seven

  Day Eight

  Day Nine

  Day Ten

  Day Eleven

  Day Twelve

  Day Thirteen

  Day Fourteen

  Day Fifteen

  Day Sixteen

  Day Seventeen

  Day Eighteen

  Day Nineteen

  Day Twenty

  Day Twenty-One

  Day Twenty-Two

  Day Twenty-Three

  Day Twenty-Four

  Day Twenty-Five

  Day Twenty-Six

  Day Twenty-Seven

  Day Twenty-Eight

  Day Twenty-Nine

  Day Thirty

  Day Thirty-One

  Day Thirty-Two

  Day Thirty-Three

  Day Thirty-Four

  Day Thirty-Five

  Day Thirty-Six

  Day Thirty-Seven

  Day Thirty-Eight

  Day Thirty-Nine

  Day Forty

  Day Forty-One

  Day Forty-Two

  Day Forty-Three

  Day Forty-Four

  Day Forty-Five

  Day Forty-Six

  Day Forty-Seven

  Day Forty-Eight

  Day Forty-Nine

  Day Fifty

  Day Fifty-One

  Day Fifty-Two

  Day Fifty-Three

  Day Fifty-Four

  Day Fifty-Five

  Day Fifty-Six

  Day Fifty-Seven

  Afterword

  Other Books by Shawn Inmon

  Copyright