The Big Trip 2026: Day One

Let me start by saying that today is actually day two, but at 7:00 am, not much has transpired save a walk with my dog, coffee, a bowl of Irish oatmeal with cherries, and coffee. Yesterday was so much more interesting.

As you may or may not know, these "Big Trips" started with our buying a 2000 Ford E-350 Econoline van conversion in 2023 so I could empty my bucket list while I could. I turned 72 last November, and there's still so much to explore in this beautiful world we all inhabit. So, I started by visiting cousins in Orrick, Missouri, and visiting the Southpoint Cemetery east of town, where Mama and her ancestors, back to 1830, are buried. At 72, I still very much need my mother's voice in my ear, asking me to tell her about my adventures. She loved my stories, and so when I take these trips, the urge to make them story-worthy pushes me outside of my need for structure. I want them to be good stories. Not Johnny Depp swashbuckling Tom Cruise hanging from the door of an airplane sorts of adventures, but more waking to unfamiliar bird songs. Or unfamiliar smells. If you've not been, the South Dakota plains are perfumed with the smell of fresh linen drying on the clothesline just before the rain sets in. Such a surprise and yet. so familiar. Sometimes new adventures are reminders of memories lost. The Milky Way on a summer night was so bright it lit my walk home from Judy's house when I was a teenager. City lights have all but blocked the stars where we live today. As I travel north and westbound in the coming weeks, I look forward to the distant fade of city lights and the return of old memories.

Custer National Park from the Big Trip 2025

Mama is second from the left, back row.

Grandpa Thurman Dudgeon is back row, right in the middle.

Grandpa and Grandma Dudgeon

Grandpa and Grandma Dudgeon, Grandma Frances, and Great Aunt Laura.