Years ago when I was in the 4th grade, my father received in the mail an advertisement from AAA, which was his auto insurance company, and within the advertisement was the most beautiful map of the United States.
My father gave the map to me, as I was the child in our family that just loved things like that.
My 3 older brothers, when cleaning out their school things, would always give me maps, books, and empty notebooks, and I always just loved taking them and studying them and charting my course in life.
I'm a list-person - a very organized person to the point of obsession.
When my father gave me that truly beautiful map of the United States, I sat at the old Singer sewing machine that I used as a desk in my room and imagined owning a motor home and traveling the USA.
I charted my course, and outlined leaving the Detroit area and driving down to Ohio and then up to Maine, and I had pages and pages of how many hours I'd drive before stopping and how much time I'd spend in every area.
It would have taken me years to travel the USA, and then summer ended, and school started, and I forgot all about that childhood dream.
I had planned out very young that I would attend college, have a career in biology back then, and marry at the ripe old age of 24 years old.
Turned out that even though I did attend college initially as a biology major, my true calling was math, as I was just very good at it.
And I loved math.
I loved the formulas and theorems.
I loved proofs.
Back in the days of my college years, once I changed majors to math, calculators were just coming onto the scene, and they were so outrageously expensive that I never even considered asking my parents to buy me one, so I got by with a slide-rule and having a very good memory.
I eventually went into mechanical engineering, due to the insistence of some very helpful professors that advised me in my charting for my life.
I worked in Detroit for Rockwell International initially, and I so owe that first break, the first step in the door to a professor who called me at home and told me to apply for the job.
I'm a woman, and Affirmative Action had just been introduced, and if it wasn't for AA, I'd have never been given the chance.
I paid for Affirmative Action my entire working life as an engineer, and believe me, I know how much white males hated me for it, but I succeeded regardless and was quite good at my job.
I worked in the Detroit area for 10 years, and worked for GM mostly as an automotive engineer but as a job-shopper, and then moved to Arizona to try my hand at aeronautical engineering.
It was in Arizona that I met my husband and I was much older than my original plan of marrying at 24 years old.
Upon marrying my husband, I acquired a teenaged daughter, and once we survived getting her through high school and then onto her moving out and making a life of her own, we started talking about traveling.
My husband and I sacrificed and saved since getting together as we shared the goal of retiring young.
Even though we made fairly decent money, we saved, saved, saved, never lived high-on-the-hog, as both of us grew up with struggling parents, and of course, put our daughter through college and helped her once she moved out and moved to Albuquerque.
We never planned on buying a motor home until we were both retired, but then I lost my parents, who died quite young for parents, and we met people who advised us to do it when young, because one never knows about ones' health upon retirement.
So, we began our search for a motor home and ended up buying a well-used C-class, and then we began traveling.
Since we were working, we started off on 2 week journeys, going back to Michigan to see a brother or going to the south and visiting Civil War memorials, as my husband is a Civil War buff.
Back then, trips were always rushed, and the old motor home was always breaking down, and it was a gas guzzler.
Eventually, I walked away from my career, because quite frankly, I couldn't take it anymore.
I survived several down-sizings, and it was downright depressing, plus my coworkers truly made my life a living hell.
So, I retired younger than we planned, but all was good.
My husband is a genius, and he really is a rocket-scientist, and the company sent us to Paris, France for 2 years, whereby we traveled Europe extensively, and my God, neither of us ever planned or expected that.
Upon returning, my husband worked one more year and then he retired, but the company called him back and asked if he would work part-time, and so he did.
They then sent us to Montreal, Canada, and we drove up in our old motor home, and we broke down so many times, but the company footed the bill, as the reason they sent us was because they knew that we would live in that old motor home for 4 months in Canada and it was cheaper for them than relocating us.
It was a small motor home - very small - and it's a good thing that my husband and I get along so well as we would have killed each other, otherwise.
Once we got back to Arizona after 4 months in Montreal, it was quite a relief, and our 2-bedroom, 1200 square foot home was palatial.
The company, regretfully for everyone, was forced to let my husband go, but then he was only supposed to be part-time anyway, so it wasn't as though his ego was crushed or anything.
We didn't travel for nearly a year after returning from Montreal, and then we decided to go again, but closer to home for 2 weeks up to Show Low, Arizona and Fool Hollow.
Of course, we broke down driving out of the Salt River Canyon, and trust me, that was very frightening.
While at Fool Hollow, there was a storm and the awning ripped off, and we said that's enough.
Considering all that we'd been through, the awning ripping off was so minor, but it was the last straw.
I don't even want to think about how much money we spent on that old motor home, but we put over 70,000 miles on that old motor home and it'd be easier for me to tell you the states that we didn't visit.
We never towed a vehicle in that C-class and that means that when we ran out of bread or milk, we either walked to the nearest store, or rode our bicycles.
Finally, we decided to buy a trailer and a pickup, and we did just that!
I had a pickup that I had bought new in Detroit to drive out to Arizona, and so we traded that 26 year old truck in and traded in the old motor home, and even though the cash-for-clunkers didn't cover either of them, the dealers gave us the deals anyway.
Plus, when we bought the brand new trailer, which is 26 feet and the bathroom in this thing compared to that old motor home is to die for, and when we bought the new pickup, the economy had collapsed, so we were able to make a deal and we made out, as the dealers were desperate.
It took a bit of practice for my husband to learn how to tow, and I will save my husband the embarrassment of divulging his first mishaps, but let me just say that it was an expensive ordeal.
And if anyone is reading this, do Walkie-Talkies, as that will save your marriage!
Last year we took our first major trip towing up to Glacier National Park in Montana.
We stayed one week in Gros Ventre right outside of Jackson Hole and on the foothills of Yellowstone Park.
We stayed for one week in Erwin, Idaho on the Snake River.
We stayed one week right outside of Glacier, and everywhere we've been since having the trailer, we've unhitched, and we're able to drive the truck to site-see.
And this year, here I sit 20 miles outside of Pagosa Springs, Colorado and up in the Rocky Mountains, and remembering when I was in the 4th grade that I charted my life and now I'm living it.
You never know what life holds, so never give up your dreams, as dreams do come true.