Have you ever had the opportunity of traveling the country, from sea to shining sea? Have you ever been able to spend a week or more wandering the highways of this amazingly diverse country of ours? After dedicating the past 5 decades to everything from retail sales to public education, we actually found two months to dedicate to doing just that. The first of those month-long treks served as the inspiration for the first half of this book, the award-winning, "Road Trip." We made long overdue visits to family, met up with old friends, and made some new ones. It was a wonderful adventure. Later that same year we expanded our travels with another month-long, cross-country trek to Washington State, traveling the northern Interstate route from New York to Seattle with countless stops in between. Spending time to investigate many locales, from small towns to big cities, we enjoyed restaurants recommended by the locals, along with a few familiar "name" eateries in new surroundings. We experienced a purple mountain's majesty above the fruited plain, a palace made of corn, stone countenances on a mountainside, the joy of an open rest stop, and compass roses blooming in the very streets. Come along with us and hear the roar of the Pacific, and then of course, return to a place like no other: Home.