Mother and son team up for cross-country adventure

By Colleen Gundlach

Many people dream of jumping in the car and driving across the country, but few take the leap and actually do it. Kate Wilcox and her 21-year-old son Larry are the exception. Last October they packed a tent, some provisions and their dog, Rosie, into their Ford truck and hit the road, with a free-spirit itinerary. Their only goal was to see the country and visit some friends along the way.

Wilcox, a former Norfolk resident now residing in Colebrook, is well-known in both communities for the work she provides as a property manager, personal assistant, caretaker, driver and house sitter to people in these towns. It was through this work that she met Larkin Hasbrouck. When Hasbrouck’s house on Estey Road in South Norfolk burned to the ground in 2016, he eventually moved to Washington State to live with relatives. He unknowingly left behind a large wooden bowl that had some sentimental value. Wilcox decided to personally deliver it.

She and Larry saved and planned for close to a year, and by October 1, 2017, they were ready to go. In addition to their own provisions, behind the seat of the truck they packed an antique trunk they wanted to deliver to a friend on Orcas Island. It was a tight fit in the truck, but they hit the road anyway, and over the course of the next 30 days they drove 10,200 through 27 states – averaging 425 miles per day.

At the end of their first day of travel, the pair spent the night at Niagara Falls before moving on to Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands in South Dakota. Some nights they slept in the back of the truck and some evenings they pitched their tent. Once or twice they splurged on a motel, but both agree that the camping was much more fun.

By the time they reached Yellowstone National Park, the snow was falling and tent camping was a bit nippy. They toughed it out, though, and were rewarded for their stalwart attitudes when one particularly cold evening they both woke up chilled and decided to start the truck and drive around to warm up. They drove to an isolated area of the park where they could run the truck without disturbing other campers. While parked in a scenic turnaround keeping warm, they were treated to the sight of two male bison fighting in the moonlight. After the bulls eventually moved away, a whole herd of the animals moved in, coming right up to the windows of the Wilcox’s truck. “It was an amazing sight,” says Kate.

Larry Wilcox, an avid fisherman, had one main personal goal for the trip – to fish. He was not disappointed, enjoying angling time all across the country, especially in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Oklahoma. He also fulfilled his wish to visit the obsidian mines in Modoc National Forest in California. The pair also discovered an old-time tannery tucked away in the mountains where they were able to purchase supplies for making fishing flies – another of his hobbies.

When they reached the Pacific Coast in Washington, they traveled to Orcas Island to deliver the abovementioned trunk and found themselves on an adventure in the ocean, trying to reach the correct island. After a two-hour wait for the ferry, they sailed to mainland once more, this time to Sequim, Washington and the main goal of their trip – a visit with Larkin Hasbrouck. Kate and Larry spent two days with Hasbrouck, reminiscing about Norfolk, playing board games and generally enjoying the beauty of the northwest before they set off once again on their road trip.

California was the next stop, but they chose not to stay long due to the wildfires that were burning out of control there. Instead they pressed on to the Grand Canyon, where they camped on the north rim, and then on to Carlsbad Caverns. They spent a night in the desert, in Brantley State Park, near the southernmost lake in the state of New Mexico before moving into Texas, where another adventure awaited.

The Palo Duro Canyon, near Amarillo, Texas is one of the largest canyons in the country, second only to the Grand Canyon. Palo Duro is 20 miles wide, has a maximum depth of more than 800 feet and the elevation at the rim is 3,500 feet above sea level. The Wilcoxes camped one night in the canyon and awoke to find a pack of coyotes helping themselves to the food in their cooler. “They ate the bacon and stole a large block of cheddar cheese,” says Kate. “I thought they had eaten it, but we must have scared them, because when we were leaving later in the day, we drove by our hunk of cheddar cheese on the side of the road!”

Being into the last lap of their epic trip, the pair stopped at Lake Eafala in Oklahoma, the largest lake in the state, encompassing 102,000 acres with 600 miles of shoreline. It is an angler’s heaven – Larry was especially enthralled.

After a quick stop in Maryland to visit an old friend, the pair set their sights for home, exhausted, exhilarated and excited by all they had seen and done. Both agree that they would do it again in a heartbeat – after some alone time. “We loved traveling together and enjoyed each other’s company,” says Kate. She laughs when she adds, “but there’s such a thing as needing your own space, too.”

Photo by Douglas Duncan: Kate Wilcox and her son, Larry, spent two days on their cross-country trip in Sequim, Wash., visiting former Norfolk resident Larkin Hasbrouck.