Signal to Travel…for dVerse

Traffic signal clicks:
     green...yellow...red, 
     green...yellow...red.
     No other traffic in that cool dawn 
     to pay heed,
     just the four of us 
     in our Ford station wagon,
     heading for adventure.

My brother said we saw a lot 
     but not for long.
Dad had mileage planned and where we’d stop each night,
     (no thanks then to MapQuest/Garmin,
     just an accountant’s brain and urge for order.)

Sometimes Dad drove all night,
     Mom asleep on a cot until her turn,
     the two of us crossways,
     feet under the cot,
     sleeping soundly despite the lack of seat belts,
     still alive now to tell the stories and view the slides
          that were the photos of the day.

Living in Nebraska placed us 
     equidistant from all destinations,
     so we drove throughout the
     contiguous United States:

red rock in fantastic formations,
oceans’ (both) crashing waves,
(more destinations beyond those horizons),
yawning canyons and peaks that tore the sky,
plains where there was once only grass,
deserts where cacti were the grass.

Still today, the silently changing traffic light beckons, 
sending seductive subliminal messages
    from places yet unseen.