- November 29, 2024
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Many people dream of taking off in their retirement years and exploring the country, and there’s a couple in Ormond-by-the-Sea that really did it. They sold their house and spent seven years traveling with a truck and trailer, going where they wanted, when they wanted.
Their journeys included seven trips across the United States and back.
Mary-Ann Westbrook recently recalled a vivid memory. They were in the Badlands of South Dakota, stopped by the road to watch a herd of grazing bison. She was standing on the truck running board, leaning on the door.
A car came in the opposite direction and it started some of the bison running. They soon were all running and stampeded across the road, in front of the truck.
“It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen,” she said. “I’m still fascinated by the way the ground shook, the dirt flew. They were thundering, 15 feet away.”
One of her husband Jon’s favorite memories involves animals quite a bit smaller.
While stopped overnight in the desert, they put bones on a paper plate and watched desert foxes come up to take them. Sometimes, they would try to take more bones than they could carry, or try to take the whole plate.
“It was hilarious,” he said.
The Westbrooks were able to stay for weeks in state and national parks, and they also stayed on public lands, common out west, where they could simply pull off the road and camp for the night. They would also stay in Wal-Mart parking lots, which is legal in many states.
They had solar panels on the roof of the trailer, and could even watch television.
“We would have a catastrophe, but then I would have a cup of coffee standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon and I would think, yeah, I can do this.”
Mary-Ann Westbrook, on traveling around the country
They left on their trip in 1997, after Jon Westbrook had been retired five years. They had talked about traveling the country since they were married
“We always wanted to see the country in depth and not have to worry about time,” she said.
“Our kids, growing up, knew we were going to do it someday.”
They left one morning from Buffalo, New York, after selling their home, with an inch of snow on the road.
“We’re doing it,” she remembers saying to her husband. “We’re actually doing it.”
Their travels were not without trouble. Once, they were on public lands, looking for a place to pull over. They saw a sign that warned against travel by large vehicles, but there was not a good place to turn around. They kept going, looking for a place to turn around, and ended up on a frightening, curvy mountain road with no guardrails.
It finally got too steep to continue, and they had to be rescued by a towing company from a nearby town. They had to spend the night, with the trailer at an angle in the ditch, while waiting for rescue. The company had to help them all the way down the mountain.
“I won’t tell you how much that cost,” she said.
There were other problems over the seven years, but not enough to change their minds.
“We would have a catastrophe,” she said, “but then I would have a cup of coffee standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon and I would think, yeah, I can do this.”
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They travelled in a Dodge Ram pickup truck, pulling a 33-foot SunnyBrook trailer, and Jon Westbrook recommends that sort of setup for a long-term trip. They knew they wanted a large trailer, because it would be their home for several years, and they knew they wanted a truck with a lot of power to get over the mountains.
Also, they carried a couple of dirt bikes in the truck. They were able to go places too far to walk, or too rough for a truck.
Mary-Ann Westbrook said people would sometimes say they were homeless, but she would answer that her home is right behind her.
“It’s my home, the view from the window just changes from time to time,” she would say.
Westbrook, now president of the Tomoka Poets Society and secretary of the Florida State Poets Association, began her writing on the trip. She started by writing about their adventures for their relatives and children.
Once, they were traveling with another couple and the woman hated the desert. She asked Westbrook to write something about how awful the desert was.
So Westbrook started writing, but ended up writing a poem on how much she loved the desert. She read the poem over the CB radio to the other couple as they drove along.
“I still remember her reading that poem,” her husband said.
She said she has always wanted to see what’s around the next corner, and even today has the yearning.
“When I’m kayaking, I always want to see what’s around that next bend,” she said.
Before they set out on their adventures, they did a lot of research. First, they checked out what kind of trailer they wanted to live in several years. They took out a post office box for their mail, and, when traveling, would call and have their mail forwarded to a nearby post office. However, they say rules have changed on forwarding mail since national security has become tighter. They suggest planning banking and pharmaceutical needs so they can be taken care of anywhere in the country.
