[ WP ] An only son takes his mother on an epic road trip before Alzheimers takes her memory away completely .

*This might be the most horribly sap filled thing I've ever deigned to write. 
 I blame it on the insomnia filled with nothing but the sap filled chick flicks that have somehow turned me into a blubbering idiot. Also, I'm sorry that it's not any good. But I'm working on that. * 
 
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 The sun was just starting to creep up in the horizon when they finished passing through the arid desert and started turning towards coastal land. Daniel rolled the windows down in the sedan with New York tags and took a breath as the air cooled. It smelt like the ocean, crisp and breezy. He turned and smiled to the passenger car. 
 
 `` We're almost there mum.'' 
 
 She had n't said it, but a year ago when she had grabbed his hand in the doctor's waiting room, and told him the news, he had started planning their last trip west on the drive to her home. He had hoped it would have taken longer, but the past year had taken its toll and two weeks ago, when they were sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast, she had grabbed his hand and with an intensity in her eyes startling for a morning and said, 
 
 `` It's time.'' 
 
 The woman in question did n't respond to his previous utterance, as she was laid back in the seat, head pressed against her jacket rolled up into a make shift pillow. The previous day's horse back ride through Joshua Tree and the desert had taken most of her energy. It had been an effort getting her awake and into the car before dawn but the visit had been worth it. 
 
 His mother was born right in the land they were driving through, between the mountain canyons and the ocean on the west coast. She was a Katie, never Katherine, a painter, a story teller, a free spirit, and vagabond at heart. But even when she found his dad, fell in love and happily followed him clear across the country into Boston, then New York, making a home in the big cities of the east coast for fifty years, she still had a special love for her childhood home. He remembered how he had found her in the early morning, ten years ago, standing by the lighthouse in Montauk right after they'd buried dad. She had told him, 
 
 `` I always feel at home most, in wide open spaces, under the stars. I just needed a little bit of that feeling, now, you know?'' 
 
 It was n't a surprise honestly, he clearly remembers the road trips the little family saved up for and took every couple of years. The three of them piling into a car and making the drive from New York to California. His dad was the type to stop at every roadside attraction, stretch his legs every rest station, and buy a t-shirt in every state, but his mum, she always tried to push him to hurry, with a buzzing energy that would n't let loose at least until they hit the midwest. 
 
 `` Daniel William Connor, the boiled peanuts in Indiana are going to taste exactly the same as the ones form the roadside stand in Ohio!'' 
 
 He remembers falling asleep across the backseat, watching his parents with drooping eyes, dad drawing out vowels and teasing in an impression of valley girl accent, 
 
 `` Hold your horses Katie, we're almost to Cal-eee-for-niiii-a.'' 
 
 He pulled the sedan into a parking space just as the sun was halfway above the horizon, casting the horizon in a pink and golden dawn, but the sky above the ocean was still a deep blue. His mother had awakened. Yawning she cleared her eyes and sighed happily as she took in her surroundings. He barely had enough time to shut the car off and lock it before his mother took off along the boardwalk connecting the lot to the beach. Her shoes were kicked off well before her toes hit the sand. While she grabbed onto his arm for support, she walked with purpose up the shore. They'd made this trek countless times. He did n't speak much, letting his attention wonder. She'd point out when she'd see a particular beautiful seashell to scoop up, or call attention to a crab scuttling by. 
 
 The sun was hanging above the horizon when she stopped their walk along the sand. She turned and led them toward the ocean, stopped and let her feet dig into where the waves lapped up onto shore, sand pulling at her feet, contented smile on her face. They stood with the sun warming their backs as the last remaining stars faded into the lightening sky and she leaned her head against his shoulder. 
 
 `` You know Daniel, as much as I love the city life we've made, I always feel at home most under the wide open sky, under the stars.'' 
 
 He winced, but he felt compelled to answer for the both of them. 
 
 `` I know mum. We've always known.'' 
 
 She continued right on smiling, 
 
 `` You know, if I have a boy, we can name him after you. But he should grow up in his own skin! Have a name to call his own along with yours.'' 
 
 He knew the next line, as she had told him so many times before. 
 
 `` You call him Daniel all you want, but he'll be my Joshua, so he can always have a piece of my home with him.''
