MEL AND I are still recuperating from our trip through 13 states. It seems that once you get home and you're not on the road anymore, your body says, "WHOA! I need some time off to rest up."

We both are looking forward to taking more trips together but not right away. Even the thought of a two-day trip makes our bodies ache more, but at least we can laugh about it.

Thanks to all of you who wrote to me about the trip and how some of the things we saw and experienced brought back memories for you, too. I'm always so pleased to hear that something I wrote made you feel warm inside.

Sorry I couldn't tell some of you how close I came to your old hometown, but I still don't know where I was half of the time. Mel and I have to really put our heads and receipts in one place and try to figure out each town we passed through.

Yes, my old neighborhood had changed a lot from when I lived there. Many houses and streets I remembered as if it were just yesterday since I was there. The alleys were still there but much narrower than I remembered. But, of course, I was a lot smaller then, too.

It felt good to see so many familiar places and names, but even though it gave me a feeling of my carefree childhood, I had no true desire to move back there. Seeing it was good enough for me.

It would've been great if any of my childhood friends were still in that area, but sadly, they have all moved away,

The yards and sidewalks were not full of kids playing as they once were. We saw no children playing outside anywhere, and it wasn't a cold day, either. No more hopscotch designs drawn in chalk in front of the quiet homes, no tire swings hanging from strong tree limbs.

Sad to me that even in my old, safe neighborhood, things had changed that much.

I guess most children nowadays are inside playing computer games instead of getting rosy cheeks from playing outside. No wonder they get sick so often; they're like hothouse plants that aren't exposed to the real world. Once out in the world, they catch every bug that comes along — or at least they seem to.

No matter what strides progress has made in all these years, the safety and innocence that we seniors felt growing up is not the norm now for youngsters. I guess the closest they will ever come to it is watching old movies on TV.

Mel and I saw one black horse, trotting proudly, pulling an Amish couple in a slick, black buggy. I had to think how very different their lives are from ours. We drove through part of the Ozarks and enjoyed the colorful trees, even though the road was windy and narrow.

Our eyes saw so many things and our cameras captured some of the images for us to look at over and over.

Something neither of us had ever seen before happened at a rest stop before going to Devils Tower in Wyoming. As we left the facility, Mel saw a pair of fawns and ran to get a photo of them. I don't run very well in my walker, so I stayed in the parking lot.

Parked five spaces from us was a white van and a white car with a faded circle of unreadable words. I watched as from the two vehicles one female and five male officers appeared.

They carefully unlocked the sliding door on the right side of the van, and from a metal cage inside removed a female prisoner in a bright orange uniform with both hands and feet shackled.

She was taken to the rest area, and the female and one male officer stayed with her. Then the other four officers opened the back of the van, and out came a male prisoner in the orange uniform, double shackled as well.

I wasn't allowed to take photos of the officers or the prisoners, nor would they tell me anything about them. But it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Mel and me.

A native of Minnesota, Carol Olson grew up in South Dakota and Walnut Creek and now lives in Pittsburg. Reach her at carolleeolson@aol.com.