The Long Way Home

“When lonely days turn to lonely nights
You take a trip to the city lights
And take the long way home
Take the long way home”

--From the song “Long Way Home” by Supertramp, 1979

My 10-week odyssey in El Paso, TX, was coming to an end and it was time to plan the trip home. I originally planned to cover 1,800 miles in three days, leaving on April 1 and arriving home the evening of April 3. My plan was to go from El Paso to Oklahoma City the first day. Drive from OKC to St. Louis the second day and home the third day.

However, a couple of weeks before I left, I thought about visiting a friend from Stow who had moved to the Phoenix area the previous year. Then, the week before my departure, I found out that my niece Angela and her husband, who live in Washington state, were spending the week of April 1 in Scottsdale, AZ, on her spring break from teaching fourth graders.

So, I used Google Maps to figure out how much further my trip would be if I visited Scottsdale for a couple of days before heading home. I figured it would add about 6 hours and 350-plus miles to the trip home.

I left my casita in El Paso about 9:15AM on April 1 and arrived in Scottsdale about 4PM. The scenery between the two cities was mostly desert with some spectacular mountain views.

The mid-day traffic in Tucson was pretty heavy and I-10 was very busy between there and Scottsdale. My friend Lenore lived 20 minutes away from my motel in Scottsdale and we agreed to have dinner at an Olive Garden about two blocks from where I was staying. She is about 80 and a retired school counselor. Both Pam and I know her from our church in Stow and I had a delightful dinner with her.

After dinner, I arranged to meet my niece and her husband, Kevin, for a beer at their condo which was about a five-minute drive from my hotel. They had a dinner commitment earlier that evening with a retired teacher who had been Angela’s mentor when she first started teaching in suburban Seattle more than 20 years ago.

The next morning, I went back to her place and we hung out by the pool, visited Old Town Scottsdale and then went back to the condo for bratwurst on the grill. It was a good visit as I hadn’t seen her in nearly a year since the memorial service for her dad who passed away in 2018.

I also decided to add another 25 minutes to my trip home by visiting Winslow, AZ, the town made famous in the Eagles first big hit “Take It Easy.”

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c3FD6msOzo

The nearly three-hour drive from Scottsdale was spectacular. It started with hilly desert with tons of Socorro cactus plants lining both sides of the highway. Then, I drove up into the mountains and the desert gave way to a heavy forest of mostly evergreen trees. There was still snow lining the side of the road and I passed over the mountain with an elevation of 7,450 feet at the top. As I drove down the other side of the mountain, the forest gave way to barren desert that was covered with sage brush.

Once I arrived in Winslow, I drove to the park in the center of town that commemorates the song. There is a block long mural depicting the scene from the song, a bronze statue of Glenn Frey leaning against a lamp post and there is a flatbed Ford truck parked nearby.

On a beautiful, sunny morning I got a coffee at the shop across the street and returned to take some pictures. I talked with a guy from Seattle who was on vacation with his wife about some Eagles’ history. During the 20-30 minutes I was there, I saw 15-20 other baby boomers visit the park and take pictures. Then, it was time to hit the road east.

On the way across northern Arizona, it was a mixture of desert and mountains. I passed near the Petrified Forest and saw some interesting rock formations and cliffs with alternating layers of pinks, tans and browns.

I passed into New Mexico and through Albuquerque as the land began to get progressively greener. There were plenty of cattle ranches and windmills as I moved into Texas. No, I didn’t see any dead birds and I didn’t hear any cancer-inducing noise from these giant white structures that our illustrious president blamed on these windmills.

I planned to spend my first night in Shamrock, TX, because it was about halfway between Scottsdale and Nashville, my planned second night stop. As I passed through Amarillo, I noticed I was driving towards some very dark clouds and I saw some intense lightening.

After about 12 hours on the road, it was getting dark and I didn’t look forward to driving in drenching rain. The last half hour of the trip was difficult with intense rain and some hail. I made it to the Shamrock exit safely and pulled into the motel parking lot. After registering at the desk, I went back to my car to get my luggage and had to navigate a small stream about three inches deep that had formed in the parking lot.

Once I got to my room, I removed my wet shoes and socks, heated two slices of leftover pizza, drank two airline-size bottles of Tullamore Dew and went to sleep.

The next morning, I was on the road to Nashville by about 6:30AM. Crossing through Oklahoma and Arkansas, the scenery became less spectacular, mostly gently rolling farm and ranch land. Conway, AR, bills itself as “The City of Colleges” with Central Arkansas University, Central Baptist College and Hendrix College in the city. Conway is also the home of Toad Suck Park. So, go figure!

I arrived in Nashville after another 13-hour drive and texted Henry, the son of my wife’s cousin. Henry is planning to marry Jennifer in Nashville in June and Pam and I plan to attend along with Brian. Pam had met Henry’s fiancé last summer when she visited Nashville with her brother and niece, but I didn't make that trip.

They came to my hotel and we went to a brew pub about five minutes from my hotel. Jennifer works for HCA Corporation in Nashville and has a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky, so we connected immediately. Go Big Blue! She’s the same age as Henry, mid-30s, and it seems like they will be a good match. We had a good conversation over draft beer and hamburgers.

After two very early morning starts, I decided to sleep in and didn’t wake up until almost 8:30AM. After a visit to the hotel breakfast bar, I showered and packed up for the last leg of the trip. I had to endure a 20-minute traffic jam in northern Nashville, another 15-minute jam in Cincinnati and a third traffic jam for a wreck about 30 miles north of Columbus.

After 9 and a half hours, I pulled into my driveway at about 8:30PM. I had covered 2,154 miles in 35.5 hours in three days. After taking my essential luggage into the house, I had a single Black Jack Daniels on the rocks and crashed.

The journey was over!