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September 8, 2006

After retiring, Lessors hit the road. Six years later, they're still going.

By Amanda McGregor

BEVERLY - Bob and Dawn Lessor didn't want a quiet retirement, so they sold their home and all their belongings in Beverly, bought an RV and have traveled almost every corner of the country, from the Badlands of South Dakota to Alligator Alley in Florida.

The Lessors have made friends in every state. They've been to artist colonies and coal mining towns, taken in beautiful sunsets from mountaintops and islands. They have run from hurricanes on Cape Hatteras, N.C., and dodged tornados in Sioux City, Iowa - by taking shelter in the walk-in freezer at a local grocery store.

"We're having a real great time," said Bob, 70, as he smiled at his wife of 48 years. "We wouldn't trade it for anything."

When the Lessors hit the road six years ago, some of their North Shore friends thought they were crazy. But the couple "never looked back," Bob said.

"I saw my friends growing old and cutting grass, maybe playing a little golf," he said, "and that's just not for us."

"Our life was so planned before," said Dawn, 68. "I haven't worn a watch since the day I retired.

"If we're driving out of a place and people say, 'Did you see this or that?' we say, 'Well, no' - and we turn the bus back around. Time isn't important."

Their RV weighs 31,000 pounds and gets 10 miles to the gallon. It is equipped with a shower, washer/dryer, kitchen, ice maker, closets, television and more, and most of it is powered by solar panels. The RV even has a basement, where they store their tools, suitcases, golf clubs, sewing machine and Christmas decorations. They travel with their cat, Maggie, adopted from a shelter in Arizona.

"We don't want for anything," Bob said.

"We're like turtles," Dawn said with a laugh. "We've renewed old friendships, and we don't have to impose on anyone - we bring along our own bed."

Getting to know you

Sometimes the Lessors visit specific destinations. Other times, they just roll into town, pick up a local newspaper and find something to do.

"We found that if you spend time in a place and get to know people, it's a much more memorable trip," Dawn said.

Bob and Dawn know their U.S. history and enjoy visiting historic battlefields, houses and other sites. In Delta, Utah, they met their first real cowboy, they said - an 80-year-old man who had run cattle for the Japanese internment camps during World War II.

"You never know who you're going to meet," said Bob, shaking his head.

Perhaps most notable is that they've never been lost.

"Bob has a remarkable sense of direction," Dawn marveled. "If we go to a town once, he'll know exactly where everything is if we go there again."

They spend their winters at the "Good Life" RV park for people over 55 in Mesa, Ariz., a small retirement community with pools and a theater.

They go to Algodones, Mexico, for many of their medical appointments, prescriptions and dental work, because it's cheaper south of the border.

Not missing a thing

When the Lessors retired in 2000, they thought they would wander for a couple of years. But six years later, here they are, winding up a visit back home in Beverly and preparing to leave today for another yearlong adventure.

"We've seen a lot, but there's so much more to see," said Bob, who does all the driving. They've been everywhere in the continental United States except for Washington State and Oregon.

The Lessors squeeze every drop out of life. They laugh a lot, and Dawn quotes Mark Twain frequently.

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do, than by the ones you did do," she recited, as the couple sat in their RV last week.

When they visit Beverly, they stay with their longtime friend Carol Crowley, who lets them dock their RV in her back yard on Cabot Street. She even got a hookup installed for them.

It was difficult, at first, for the Lessors to sell their home and all the things they had accumulated over the decades.

"But it's only stuff," Dawn said.

She did save her cherished doll collection, which she is storing at their son Shawn's house in Indiana. Their other son, Keith, lives in Florida. They don't have any grandchildren.

Bob retired from Corporate Express, an office supply sales company with an office in Lawrence. Dawn was the matron for the Beverly Police Department, where she was in charge of female detainees long before there were women police officers.

"It was very exciting," Dawn said with her characteristic impish grin. "That was the job for me."

After that, she worked at the Hogan Regional Center in Danvers for 20 years, retiring just before they hit the road in 2000.

Bob and Dawn met in the early 1950s at a dance in Salem, the night before Dawn's 16th birthday. They were married almost five years later.

"We met at the old Now and Then Hall, which is now the Hawthorne Hotel parking lot," she recalled with a laugh.

More than five decades later, they still enjoy each other's company and make great travel companions.

"As long as we have our health, we're going to push it for a while," said Dawn, adding with a laugh, "as long as the old man can turn the key."

Bob Lessor's memorable moments

r Crab fishing in Corpus Christi, Texas

"They tie chicken legs to the line and toss them in the water, and they come up covered in crabs."

r The Albuquerque Balloon Festival

A thousand hot air balloons were launched into the sky. "The sky was just filled with balloons. It was unreal."

* Sunset Celebration in Key West, Fla.

"(Ernest) Hemingway used to get a drink at Sloppy Joe's and walk to the park to toast the sunset. So we had to do that, too. The sunset was absolutely the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life."

* Yellowstone National Park

"It's so, so beautiful. If I could build a house right in the center of Yellowstone, I would, and life would go by me."

* Oakman, Ariz.

"The military wanted to see if donkeys were good at carrying supplies through the mountains. They weren't, so they let them go. Donkeys run free around town, everywhere. They follow you around in stores, and you can feed them carrots.

* Madison County, Iowa

"We found the house where 'Bridges of Madison County' was filmed, and we also saw John Wayne's house."

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