Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, and Cold Cuts

When I was ten years old, my parents took us on vast cross-country trips to visit family back east.

It was a long drive from Ogden, Utah where my dad was stationed to Ohio and Connecticut.

Ohio is where my dad grew up.

His mother, brother, and sister still lived there in the mid-seventies.

Connecticut was where my mom’s sister and her family resided, her brother-in-law a commander of a nuclear submarine at that New England sub base.

For a ten-year-old boy, going back east in a Ford station wagon was as exciting as Christmas morning.

I loved all our relatives, especially the cute cousins my twin brother and I were in love with growing up.

These trips happened almost annually every year during my youth.

How different every part of the country was.

I loved seeing all of it.

Our trips meant new summer clothes, shorts and teeshirts for the daytime travel and a new pair of jeans for the cool evenings camping in KOAs.

My mother put together fried chicken, potato salad, and cold cuts packed into two large coolers.

Often times we stayed in rest areas, even popping up our tent trailer between two large semi trucks!

It also meant having puzzle books, word searches, and cartoon books like Peanuts and B.C. for us younger kids; MAD Magazine for my older brother.

On those trips, I experienced fire flies for the first time, swam in the Atlantic, and saw the house where my dad spent his childhood.

This is why I still enjoy taking long road trips to this day.

It is a lot like it was when I was a child.

I still camp out in truck stops and rest areas.

I still visit interesting places along the way.

I still get to see family.

So, as I finish up preparations for the Luck of the Irish Trip, I pack up the van just like my dad had done.

In our own way, we buy shorts, tees, and jeans for the little puppies and comic books for them to read.

Fried chicken and potato salad for them to eat at the camp stops.

Not literally, of course.

But metaphorically in the form of bully sticks for them to gnaw on and dog toys to keep them company.

Patrick and Lucky Charms will absorb every moment, asking me from time to time, “Are we there yet?”

But at each stop, they will marvel at how big this country really is.

They’ll look to Dreamer, their mom, for guidance and follow her example.

They’ll rely on me to keep them safe, fed, and loved across every mile.

Whether as an adult or as a child,

it is all the same to me.

I love seeing parts of the country for the very first time.

And if you want to follow me on PolarSteps, I post photos/videos along the way and descriptions of our travels.

I would love to have you come ride along with me!

https://direwolfproject.com/direwolf-dogs/direwolf-express/direwolf-express-tracking/

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.