Pete and Tracey Both Head West.

Based on a post by ron de, in 2 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Connected.

 

 

The

campground where we were camped was next to a state park, and after

that lunch, I really needed to either walk around or take a nap. I

figured Tracey wouldn't like me taking a nap so I asked her if she'd

like to walk one of the trails in the state park. She laughed.

"My Joe would have taken a nap while I walked by myself, so this will be new to me. Let's go."

It

was during our walk I learned who Joe was and why Tracey was tent

camping. That was after I explained why I was driving around in a big RV

by myself. Tracey listened to my story and then smiled.

"That's

why Joe and I bought a tent and the Jeep. He'd worked for almost fifty

years before he retired at sixty-eight and was going crazy with nothing

to do. He liked history, and after six months of doing nothing, decided

we'd tour the country looking at historic places. He thought we'd

understand the older places better if we lived in a tent like they did

in the early days, so he went out and bought one. I wasn't too sure

about a tent. I mean, a tent doesn't really have walls or anything to

protect you, and if it's cold out side it's cold inside too. At least he

bought cots so we didn't have to sleep on the ground.

"Our

daughter and her husband moved from their apartment into our house so

there'd be somebody there to take care of it when we were gone. We

started from Milwaukee in April of last year and drove South. We got as

far as Shiloh in Tennessee. We'd walked around the battlefield most of

the day. When we were walking back to our Jeep, Joe said his chest hurt.

Half an hour later, he was having trouble breathing, so I drove him to

the hospital in Savannah. He passed away while they were trying to get

him stablized. The doctors told me he'd had a pretty bad heart attack at

Shiloh and had another one while they were working on him.

"After

I got Joe back to Milwaukee and had the funeral I had to decide what I

was going to do. I couldn't very well move back into the house because I

remembered the years when my mother lived with us and I wouldn't wish

that on anybody else. What I decided is to do what Joe wanted to do. I'd

travel around with my tent and visit the places he wanted to see. It

sounds weird, I know, but I thought maybe he'd see those places through

me.

"Anyway,

I did spend a couple of months with my daughter until the weather got

cold, and then headed back South where it was warmer. I spent the winter

camping in Georgia and Florida, and then started following the warmer

weather north. I was doing fine by myself until yesterday. If I'd known

it was going to rain so hard, I'd have gotten a motel room."

I said I didn't think any woman would like living in a tent. Tracey just chuckled.

"You

mean because I don't have all the comforts of a house like a kitchen

and a bathroom? Well, I like to cook, but I can cook just fine on my

little stove, and all the campsites I stop at have a central bathroom

with showers. I like sleeping outdoors in the fresh air and listening to

the crickets instead of in my house in Milwaukee in the stale air and

listening to the traffic go by. I would trade that for my tent any day,

now that I'm used to it."

We

talked about a lot of things as we walked along that trail, and I was

surprised at how easy it was to talk to Tracey. She seemed to like

listening, but she wasn't backward about giving me her opinions about

what I said. She thought retiring early like I did was a good thing. She

was five years younger than Joe and had been after him to retire for

years because he'd been diagnosed as a prime candidate for a heart

attack. She wanted him to relax and enjoy life and hopefully avoid the

heart attack that killed him. He thought he should keep working to build

up his 401K so they wouldn't have to worry about money.

She

thought it was perfectly normal for a woman to be camping by herself,

but she wasn't a big fan of the women's liberation movement. When I

asked her why, she shrugged.

"I

suppose it's fine if a woman wants a career before anything else, but

they're missing out on a lot by not having a husband and a family. I was

never sorry I was a stay at home mom. I liked being there when the kids

came home from school, and I liked fixing dinner for us every night.

Now, mind you, I didn't object when Joe wanted to go out for dinner on

my birthday and our anniversary, but I was happy doing all the cooking

the rest of the time."

The

more we talked, the more I liked Tracey. She was a very intelligent

woman with her own ideas about life, but she was about as down-to-earth

as a woman could get. By the time we got back to my RV, I was getting

really comfortable with her.

I

got a lot more comfortable when she started making dinner. I hadn't

actually smelled food cooking in a long time because I just used my

microwave for everything. The aroma of spaghetti sauce filled the RV and

it smelled like it was going to be fantastic.

By

the time Tracey said everything was ready, I was starving. When she sat

a plate of spaghetti smothered in sauce in front of me, I'd have gorged

myself even if I hadn't been hungry. Tracey's spaghetti was better than

any I'd had in a restaurant.

We

talked a little after dinner, but Tracey said she wanted to get an

early start the next morning, so we turned in about nine. Well, Tracey

turned in. I spent the time trying to first read a book and then trying

to watch a movie. I wasn't successful at either because I kept thinking

about how nice it was having Tracey there and how that would change when

she left.

I

thought about asking her where she was going next, and then decided

she'd just think I was trying to follow her to convince her to do

something she didn't want to do. Truth be told, I would have been

following her, though just for the company and not anything else. That's

what I told my self, but I knew she'd never believe me. I was still

thinking about some way to end up camped in the same campground the next

night when I finally fell asleep.

Tracey’s Breakfast Arts.

I woke up the next morning to the smell of bacon frying and hot coffee. Tracey smiled when I walked out of my bedroom.

"Just

thought I'd send you off with a good breakfast again. You really should

eat better breakfasts so you'll have energy until lunch."

While

we ate, I wanted so bad to ask where she was headed, but I didn't.

After we ate, Tracey washed everything and then took her skillet and

what was left of her bacon and eggs and bread to her Jeep. I helped her

take down her tent, roll it up, and stick it in the back of the Jeep.

When we were done, Tracey smiled.