My husband and I have prided ourselves in how we have raised our children. They are not perfect and at this point in their lives, they are still having financial struggles, but each of them is happy. Our youngest son has caused us the most challenges. He is the kind of person that will do something just because he can. At times this outlook has placed him in situations that risk his personal safety. He has bungee jumped, sky dived, cliff jumped and white water rafted. I have spent many hours worrying about his safety, yet I was not concerned when he said that he was going to bus travel across the country.

He was planning on going to college in our community. He had worked each summer during high school and had saved most of his money. He decided he would take the summer off and bus travel to areas that he had never seen before. He was going to do this with a friend that would go with him as far as the west coast. This friend would stay on the west coast to attend college.

We drove our son to the Grey Hound Station so he could start his bus travel. He had a cell phone, traveler’s checks and an atlas, along with his personal items and a sleeping bag. He knew that there would be nights that he would sleep on the bus getting from one place to the next. He agreed to call us at least every other day to let us know where he was. The first week he called regularly from his bus travel. He reported that the bus stopped in many small towns and that there were some strange and interesting people that bus travel. He and his friend planned to spend a few days at the Grand Canyon for hiking and rafting.

After six weeks on the bus travel adventure the boys arrived on the west coast. My son spent a week with his friend helping him to get situated and then he started working his way home. He reported that he was getting tired of his bus travel and wanted to spend a few weeks getting ready for college. We were expecting him home in a matter of days. When he did not call for two days we assumed that he was in an area where the cell phone did not work. At the end of the third day we were both worried.

We called the bus company to see if we could track him. When we would call his cell phone, he did not answer. I tried calling his cell phone again and a stranger answered. They said the phone was lying under the seat on the bus. We really started to panic, we called the local police to see if they could help. After three more days our son called. He had lost the cell phone and had missed a bus connection, which left him stranded in a small town during a bad storm. He was taken in by a family, but all the phone lines had been down from the storm.  He arrived home safely from his bus travel, filled with stories of his adventures. I truly hope he will never get the urge to do this again.