ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997               TAG: 9703270010
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1    EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG THE ROANOKE TIMES


NO PLACE LIKE HOME THE GRAHAMS' STREET IS WHICHEVER ONE THEY HAPPEN TO BE DRIVING ALONG

IN THE Grahams' world these days, the Econo Lodge and the Days Inn are four-star hotels. The Western Sizzlin' represents the finest dining, and the view from the Blue Ridge Parkway is the picture hanging over the living room couch.

Technically speaking, the Grahams have no couch. Their home is the van they bought eight months ago when they sold their home in Wichita, Kan., and started their journey through the United States. Lunch is often potted meat sandwiches, perfect for a family of four on a tight budget.

"The people we meet have been the biggest part of this trip," Marlene Graham said this week at a parkway overlook. "Now it's like all people who live in America are our neighbors."

All of which may sound a little hokey, she admits. But she insists that it's true. "The friendliness of the people, that always surprises us. And people are so proud of their part of the country and just willing to share it."

On July 4, 1996, the Grahams drove off to look for America.

Soon after, they found it.

And now, wrapping up a week in the mountains of Virginia, they'll have only 15 states left to visit on a trek that has taken them through plains and canyons and into the homes of people who have restored their faith - and pride - in this country.

The Grahams have played ball in the Field of Dreams. They've woken up to see a buffalo gazing at them through the window of a North Dakota cabin. They have been helped, time and time again, by strangers who have taken them in, repaired their video camera, or toured them around capital cities.

They have met a dozen governors.

Courtney Graham, 12, always asks them the same two questions: What is it that makes your state special, and what is your favorite food?

The answer to the first question is always the same, she said. "They say, 'The people in the state and the way they all work together.'''

Their food choices are different. Some like chicken, some like onion soup. The governor of Utah favors chocolate chip cookies.

Courtney attended public school until this year when her parents began this 365-day field trip, modeled after a trip Marlene took with her own parents when she was 17. Now, Courtney is home-schooled, and she shows off a stack of workbooks, attached to the back of the driver's seat, to prove it. A World Wide Web site updating the family's daily travels also outlines Courtney's curriculum.

Collier, who is 4, is learning, too. He promptly rattles off the list of animals he has seen on this trip. "Moose, deer, elk, black bear, buffalo, alligators, reindeer - at the fake North Pole."

(That, explains his father, Craig Graham, 42, is North Pole, Alaska, the real north pole being where Santa lives.)

Collier also learned about the Wright brothers, who "builded an airplane and flew it. Their names were Orville and Wilbur."

Until last year, Craig Graham ran a real-estate business in Wichita and Marlene Graham ran a small newspaper called "West Side Story," covering the western part of Wichita.

They were burned out, she said, and hadn't been spending enough time together as a family. Courtney's favorite activities were bike riding and Nintendo. Collier was in day care.

None of them were outdoors people.

Then Marlene sold the paper, Craig put his business on hold, they sold the house and bought a 1996 GMC van with enough room for the four of them. "My car had 185,000 miles on it, so I knew it wouldn't make it," Craig Graham said. "We started from scratch."

The van has enough room for camping equipment, a television, clothing boxes (Marlene and Courtney each have two, Craig and Collier each have one), a small refrigerator and a microwave. Courtney is in charge of giving tours, which can actually take awhile, especially if the tourists are school children who want to see every nook and cranny.

Painted on the outside of the van, along with the words "Hello, America," are an American flag and the address of their web site.

When the Grahams first mentioned the trip to Courtney, "I said, 'Bye, have a good time,''' she said. But she adjusted quickly.

"I told my friend what we were doing, and he started laughing at me," Courtney said. "He said, 'All you guys do is go to Florida,''' to visit Marlene Graham's parents.

Now they "tent" in some cities, sleep in the van in others. They visit parks and mountains and volcanoes.

Smiling faces of the American Heartland aside, the Grahams acknowledge a few difficulties on the trip, which they say is "not an easy one." There have been cold nights in the van, family spats (``We get over it,'' Marlene Graham said), a flat tire. Their camera went on the fritz at the Roanoke Weiner Stand.

"But it's like we have amnesia when it comes to that stuff, the rest is so overwhelmingly wonderful," Marlene Graham said.

Yes, Courtney misses her friends, though she sends them postcards and keeps in touch through e-mail.

No, the lack of privacy does not bother them, and they have found that sleeping four in a bed is preferable when they're staying in a cabin and the temperature outside drops to 6 degrees.

And no, they're not sure what they're going to do when the trip is over and, like Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz," they return home to Kansas.

They hope to find a way to continue traveling, and may write a book about their experiences on the road.

"As Americans, we tend to take our country for granted," Marlene Graham said. "People think about Europe and the castles - well the Biltmore Estate in Asheville [N.C.] counts in my book."

Their short-term goal is to make it to Washington, D.C., in time for the Easter egg hunt at the White House and to meet President Clinton. They've crossed his path five times during this trip, but haven't encountered him in person yet.

Each day, they return to the van (or in some cases, a hotel room with a steaming shower) and write journal entries, which they post on the Internet with their laptop computer. Macintosh donated the computer for the trip on the condition that they turn it over to a Kansas technology school when the trip ends.

They recount the day's events, like eating artichokes in California or serving as grand marshals in a Disney World parade.

Once in Utah they visited four national parks in one day.

In Roanoke, they visited the Transportation Museum and the Roanoke City Market, and gazed at St. Andrews Catholic Church from afar.

As their trip nears its end, they worry about adjusting back to "normal" life.

"We'll be in a park or someplace and I'll be tired and say 'I want to go home,''' Courtney said.

"I mean the van."


LENGTH: Long  :  131 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ERIC BRADY THE ROANOKE TIMES. Stopping for a breather on

the Blue Ridge Parkway is the Graham family: (from left) Collier, 4,

Craig, Courtney, 12, and Marlene. 2. Stickers on a map painted on

the back door of the van mark the states the family has visited. 3.

The Grahams use space to its fullest advantage, as evidenced by the

family closet (the view from the back door of the van). color.

Graphic: Color map by RT. Chart by RT. KEYWORDS: MGR

by CNB