This writing is for my husband, who wanted me to write about our June road trip.

This was our first road trip since we’ve both retired, so it was different from any we have ever experienced-more time and fewer constraints.

We both have always enjoyed road trips. Not everyone likes to sit in a car for hours, but we don’t mind because we are seeing new things, even if it is desert or plains or pine trees. We can make most anything exciting. We’ve driven to the west coast to California, the east coast to Washington, D.C., and north to North Dakota-as well as Colorado, Smoky Mountains National Park, and Yellowstone National Park

Our plans began when decided to take our grandson to Auburn University for summer camp. Looking at the map, I noticed that we would almost be in Georgia. Why not make a vacation after we dropped him off. I’ve always wanted to drive down the Florida Keys and my husband wanted to see Stone Mountain in Georgia.

So I began planning. Using many apps on my devices, I began plotting our route. I got us to Auburn with my daughter’s help, and then I began thinking about Atlanta. Should we stay at Auburn or go on to Atlanta? Not sure. Then I decided to be bold and maybe brave. I’ll just plan it as we go or basically no planning ahead. I’ve always wanted to do this. We’ll just see where we are every evening and using my apps just book a room a little bit before we decide to stop. It worked and there was no pressure to be somewhere by a certain time.

After leaving Auburn, we spent the night in Atlanta near Stone Mountain. We didn’t realize it was an amusement park. We really just wanted to see it, but it was necessary to go in the park. We were glad we entered the park because we were able to ride the Skyride to the top of the mountain.

Then off we went to Savannah and the historical district. We found a park by using our map app. The park had huge trees with Spanish moss hanging from their branches and was surrounded by beautiful old homes. I could just imagine Scarlett coming out of one of them. We strolled through the park and then just sat on a bench, so we could soak up the atmosphere. We decided to have dinner in the area, but the place we chose was closed. We asked two men standing there for dinner suggestions and they said follow us and they led us to a great barbecue diner.

Next day we headed to Florida. Stopping at the visitor center, we got great information and a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. We chose to drive down the east coast of Florida. I wanted to drive along the Atlantic Ocean, but that’s not easy. We finally found a place to park, so we could walk across the road, go pass the high weeds on the dune, step on to the bright, white sand, and wade into the water. How marvelous!

Now I wanted to stay at a place on the beach. Using my apps, I found one at Vero Beach. Before we left next morning, we put on our swimsuits, walked out of our room, and walked to the beach. For the first time I swam in the Atlantic Ocean. What a glorious morning. We had to leave too soon, but Key West was calling.

One more night on the road before we were ready to start toward our major goal of the trip: Key West. We left Homestead, Florida, that morning knowing that it would take a large part of the day to reach our final destination. That was fine with us because we wanted to savor what the Keys had to offer. When we reached Key Largo, we stopped at the visitor center where a very helpful employee circled all the best places to stop: a state park with an aquarium and old cannons, a great place to eat outside with arts and crafts booths and an opportunity to feed giant carp, a turtle hospital, and a free public park with a great beach. We wanted to spend more time at each place, but we knew we really didn’t have enough time because we wanted to get to Key West in time to enjoy it.

The drive down the Keys was fabulous. The water was unbelievably beautiful and clear with all shades of blue and green. On the east side was the Atlantic Ocean and on the west side the Caribbean. We were a little surprised that our route didn’t have as many bridges as we thought it would. There are strips of land between the isles with a great highway. Each cay and bridge is named, so we enjoyed reading some of the unusual names.

Finally we arrived at Key West and our hotel, which was in the historic district and close to the west side of the island. I did plan ahead for our hotel because I wanted a special place and we needed at least two nights there. It was perfect. We were able to walk almost everywhere we wanted to go. The best part of the first night was the sunset. Key West makes a big “to do” over the sunset. It’s a true celebration with music, entertainment, food, and vendors.

The next day we decided to take the trolley tour of Key West. We toured Ernest Hemingway’s home and Harry Truman’s summer White House. We took time to stand in line and have our photo made with the southernmost point of the United States. The grand finale came next-a sunset cruise!

Well, we couldn’t stay forever, so the next morning we started our long trip home. Since we didn’t want to be rushed, we took three nights to get home. I hoped to drive along the beach, but that doesn’t happen on the Caribbean side of Florida. We did see some of the Everglades and the gorgeous white sandy beach at Pensacola. We couldn’t stay anywhere very long because we had to get home to our little dog. We’ve never left him that long, so we were feeling a little guilty.

So was it too ambitious for someone who just turned 73 on the first day of the trip. Well, yes and no. Of course, we were tired when we got home, but I think that’s normal. Was it stressful? It was at times. We covered approximately 3,292 miles in our gas-saving red Prius. How I love that car! The only regret was the time limit because we had to get home to our dog. We covered so much in 11 days. We needed more time to see everything we wanted to see and more time to relax. Bottom line: we saw things that we had never seen before and met people we had never met before this trip.

Would we do it again? Yes, we would, but no time constrains next year. Oh, yes, we are talking about heading north next year if we take our grandson back to Auburn. I can’t wait to go exploring again!