35 years ago this month(July), Vivien and I were a freshly-minted married couple. A day after our wedding in a small Baptist Church in New Jersey, we boarded United flight 99 from Philadelphia and flew to Los Angeles. In LA we rented a car and headed up the California Central Coast. We spent the next week of our honeymoon driving towards San Francisco, along the famous Route 1. We wanted to see a part of the country, which up to that time, we hadn't seen before. Turned out to be a great call. Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) did not disappoint.

This year, our plan was to celebrate our anniversary, by driving from Miami to Key West, Florida. A reunion tour of sorts, but this time on the opposite coast. The perfect bookends to 35 years of marriage. But then the pandemic hit and that trip became a Covid-19 casualty. Although we had both been holed up at home for over a hundred-plus days, we weren't ready to hop on an airplane. Both the fears and the dangers of sitting next to asymptomatic strangers, for a 4-hour flight, were much too high. Instead, we decided on a partial do-over, to travel a portion of our honeymoon trail by driving up the PCH once more. This time it would be a dash across the desert from the suburbs of Phoenix over to Los Angeles, hang a right at Ventura, down shift, then cruise up the coast to Monterey. About eight hundred miles one way, and with any luck, plenty of delightful detours and ‘just-because’ stops in between.

**The Pacific Coast Highway Route and Sightseeing Stops**

Similar to our honeymoon, we wanted to do it mostly by ourselves, with minimal contact with crowds of people, just the two of us, enjoying and reliving some of the 35-years we have spent together. So we constructed and planned our journey centered around the idea that we would spend most of our time slow traveling by car, outdoors and close to the ocean. Vacationing in a time of social distancing - we would make it work for us. To that end, we brought along with us most of our food in two large coolers and favored suite hotels equipped with a fridge and microwave. Gone are hotel breakfast buffets. So along the way we grabbed take-away breakfasts from the lobby, which we ate in the car. We enjoyed picnics style lunches in parks close to the ocean. Dinners were mostly sunset affairs on the beach, all the while socially distancing, our version of car-camping on run. We supplemented and restocked our provisions a quick supermarket run in Santa Barbara.

**Pacific Coast Highway Route 1 Along California’s Central Coast**

**Goleta Beach Park, California, July 2020**

Nope. We did not camp our way to California. Vivien don't do camping. Sleeping in a tent on the hard ground or swinging between trees in a hammock, isn't her thing. I have tried to talk her into this camping thing every now and again, but these days, on that score, I let her be. Wisdom garnered from consistent rejection I suppose. We spent 1 to 3 nights at each hotel along the way, after which we kept on driving. In the old days, Vivien was my fearless navigator, a Rand McNally, a constant companion on our early dates. That, and her love of football were a couple of the many things that attracted me to her. The woman knew what a first down and corner blitz were, how could I not ask her to marry me. These days Sir Googlemaps handles the job of navigation. But every-so-often I still hear, "That was our turn you passed 'Mr. I don't need any directions'," coming from the seat on my right. Said with much love - of course.

**The Madonna Hote, San Luis Obispo, California 2020**

To make the trip go well, we made plans for entertainment and other distractions well in advance. For the long stretches of time we spent in the car, our go-to solution was Podcasts. We are big podcast fans, so loading my iTouch with dozens of them had been an integral part of my pre-trip Honey-Do task list. 99% Invisible, Death Sex and Money, Grammar Girl, Hidden Brain, Invisabilia, Love and Radio, Modern Love, Planet Money, This American Life, This is Love, to name a few, were downloaded and queued up. Indeed, launch day found us podcast ready.

**Idyllwild/Coachella Valley Overlook, July 2020**

**Gaviota State Park, California, July 2020**

Our respective tastes in music vary, but our musical mash-up finds common ground in 80s Pop-Rock, Gospel, Motown and Reggae. Our road trip playlist was long and covered each genre. Our car's Internet Radio provided the backup. I was prepared for whenever the mood called for Kirk or Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley or Bono. Neither of us can carry a tune to save our lives, but our on the road car karaoke jam sessions can be quite entertaining.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

[Derrick] What you want

[Vivien] Baby, I got it

[Derrick] What you need

[Vivien] Do you know I got it?

[Together] All I'm askin' Is for a little respect when you get home (just a little bit)…………

I digressed.

**Point Piedras Blancas. Light Station**

We also settled on a car game that added some fun and spice to the trip. Each time that we spotted another car exactly like ours - the same make, model, color and wheels - at the next safest juncture we would stop and kiss. You know, like hormonal teenagers. Hey, after 35-years of marriage, one must deploy some creativity to keep the romance thing going, if you know what I mean. So like that old Miller Beer commercial, when we spotted our car, we made the time. This turned out to be rather fun. Don't judge us till you try it. Just saying.

On our way to Monterey we paced ourselves. We stayed overnight(s) in Rancho Mirage, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Monterey. Our stops for sightseeing and for me to get a fix for my photography habit, are too many to list here. What I can say is that sleepy seaside towns like Morro Bay, Pismo Beach and Big Sur, still hold their charms. Holding hands while walking bare feet on the sandy beach at Pfeiffer State Park still works for old lovers like us. And overlooking the Pacific Ocean at sunset at Monterey's Lovers Point Park, can still cleanse souls, lift spirits and rekindle feelings of joy and happiness.

**McWay Falls @Julia Pfeiffer State Park, California, July 2020**

The Pacific Coast Highway is one of the most beautiful drives in all of the USA. The coastline just seems to go on and on forever. Along the California Central Coast, the sun-drenched cliffs at the end of each day were just as spectacular as we remembered them from 35 years ago. And the photography was hard to beat as well. A great picture seemed to jump out from around every corner. For 21 years now, I have had a keen interest in getting one particular picture along this journey - that of the famous Bixby bridge. I think I finally got one. Would you agree?

**The Bixby Bridge, Central Coast of California**

It's difficult to pick a favorite place along this drive of almost a thousand miles. But, if pressed, I'll cheat and pick not one place, but rather a range of connected places. It's the 160 miles stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway wedged in by the Santa Lucia Mountain range, that goes from San Luis Obispo in the south to Carmel in the north. Along the way, the craggy, rugged primeval coastline is massaged by the pacific ocean to the west. The sinewy green hills of the Santa Lucia are never more than a few miles away to the east. In between, is the serpentine highway 1, that unfurls in an unending stream of vistas and switchbacks, each demanding your attention, while also pulling your eyes away with their scenic beauty. In the early morning light, what lies below the roadway are deep mist-shrouded cliffs, precipices only a few feet away from our front tires. The beauty of the place in constant contradiction with its danger.

The Rock @Morro Bay, California, July 2020

**Sun Bathing Sea Lions, Central California Coast, July 2020**

**Social Distancing on Vacation - Sea Lion Style**

On one of our early morning drives, for a time it got real quiet inside the car. We were pulled along by the honey-brown slipstream that formed between the rising orange sun and the blue low-tide of the Pacific ocean. The magic of the shuffle-button happened upon the perfect road-trip song. I engaged the Auto-Pilot. I stopped paying attention. We held hands. It was Jackson Browne……..

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheel

Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields

In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up the 101

I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on….

Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive

Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive

In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my own

I don't know when that road turned onto the road I'm on

Running on, running on empty

Running on, running blind

Running on, running into the sun

But I'm running behind

"Deerrrrrrick, keep your eyes on the road, pleaaaaseee."

"Yes, Dear. But Honey why don't you drive for awhile, so I can gaze out the window?"

"Nope. You know I don't like driving on these winding roads."

"Sigh…"

But after 35 years and countless road trips together, we know how to make it work.

On our last night in Monterey, midnight found us with toes buried in the sand, a single blanket over us, an empty bottle of Red-Stripe between us. Slightly buzzed on the warm beer, salty air and nostalgia, we made plans and promises for our next 35 years together.

On this trip, each mile and each moment together were little anniversary gifts we gave to ourselves. But most of all, we are thankful for the gift of being each others' life partner - forever.

So until next time, may your honeymoon never end. May your years run on like a summers' morning along the pacific coast highway.