Susan and John Ruff, Fantasy Authors

In 1962, my parents bought a Ford “Econoline” camper van, hitched a trailer containing all their worldly possessions, loaded up their three young children, and drove from Connecticut to California to start a new life.

I had just turned five years old at the time, and I don’t remember too much about that trip. It must have been pretty difficult for my parents, because after we arrived in California, my mom declared that she would never make that drive again. (She quickly relented, and our family traveled back to visit the relatives in New England many times.)

One particular memory from that first cross-country trek has stayed with me over the years. It happened in the western part of the country when we were trying to make it over the mountains. I don’t know which mountains they were. When you are five, those details don’t matter to you.

Our poor camper van was never designed to haul a heavy trailer. When my dad started to drive up the mountain road, the van simply did not have the engine power to make it up that long grade with the trailer in tow. He was forced to turn around and go back down the mountain.

Uncertain what to do, we stopped at a small roadside diner, one of those little places that has a lunch counter and not much else.

What I remember best about that day was how wonderful the people were to us. A man volunteered to hitch our trailer to his truck and drive it up the mountain for us. While my dad went with him on the drive, a very kind lady stayed with my mom and the kids. Once the two of them got the trailer up the grade, they unhitched it and drove back down to get the van and the rest of us.

I have a vivid memory of sitting at the lunch counter drinking coca-cola while we waited for the truck to come back. Even at that young age, I was impressed by the amazing kindness of the people who did so much to take care of us.

While writing this post today, I realized just how much helpful strangers enhance our travel experiences. The assistance can be as simple as the person who volunteers to take a picture of you and your spouse at a scenic spot or the friendly individual at another dining table who helps you to translate a menu in a foreign country.

At times, people will literally go out of their way to help. Once, when we were lost on a driving trip, a man got on his motocycle and led us to the right road. I don’t specifically recall where we were at the time, but I remember that man’s kindness.

But getting back to that first trip, we eventually made it to California and settled into our new home. Years later, my mother told me about a comment someone made to her during that trip. A woman — seeing my mom traveling west with all her possessions in a trailer, a six-month-old baby in her arms, and two young children at her feet — remarked: “The pioneers are not dead!”

-Susan 2/7/2025