Readers PET st Her Ny Mec Cor) Solved! Ee (oi NIUKa Nea CoO! Gann THE BEST ) ROAD TRIP IN AMERICA Great Drives in Every Region CrVtany Bene’ As Sn ashe Liane] OTM Cee Cod Secrets of FES e ns Auer Sisterhood of the National Fy UWeN TS Tart AnRD ORIGINAL By EMILY GOODMAN.Knowing you're covered, wherever life takes you. That's the Benefit of Blue:” eae ae Learn more about the Me ae ESTE [-5 trusted by more doctors at BenefitOfBlue.com Ceecorm a BV s Blue Cross Blue Shield Companies are independent licensees of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association3 g 2 | 2 = 3 g z Features 64 COVER STORY ROAD TRIPS! After a long, seques- tered year, many of us feel the itch to travel again. These five signa- ture drives will inspire your wanderlust. BY MELISSA KLURMAN 78 MY MOST UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTER Jerry's Dirt My father-in-law’s love of the land was legendary, right up to the very end. BY JACOB BAYNHAM FROM THE GEORGIA REVIEW 90 LIFE WELL LIVED Fast Food Was Our Love Language In his short, difficult life, a cheap, greasy meal and a soda were a balm for my father. BY C PAM ZHANG FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES 94 PETS Your Pet Questions Answered It's not easy to know how to help our animals, considering they can’t talk—and don’t always listen. Here's some help. BY KATRINA WARREN, BVSC Reader’ Digest A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World 102 THE STRANGERS WHO. CHANGED MY LIFE The Sisterhood of the Traveling Fish Chair A funky furnishing with a backstory sparks a week these women will never forget. BY EMILY GOODMAN 106 DRAMA IN REAL LIFE “Don't Panic!” After the worst earthquake in North American history shocked Anchorage, Alaska, an unlikely savior came to the rescue. BY JON MOOALLEM FROM THE BOOK THIS IS CHANCE! Rb.com | May 2027READER’S DIGEST Contents Department 6 Dear Reader 8 Letters 10 Not on His Route! BY ANDY SIMMONS 13 The Vaccine Hunter BY REBECCA MEISER 18 A SpaghettiOs Shortage, and More 22 Strengthen Your Immune System BY MIKE ZIMMERMAN FROM AARP BULLETIN 28 AMerit Badge in Manners, and More Readers Se a On the Cover The Best Road Trips in America. Strengthen Your Immunity... The Health Benefits of a Hug... Surviving a9.2 Earthquake! . Sisterhood of the Traveling Chair: Pet Mysteries Solved! 13 Secrets of Arlington National ......0.0.0.0..40 ON THE COVER: FOTOLUMINATE LLC/, SHUTTERSTOCK. THIS PAGE: JOLEEN ZUBEK 2 may 2021 | RD.coM= TONE a end “owes ooREADER’S DIGEST Contents 4 WE FOUND A FIX 30 Rejuvenate Soft Strawberries, and More THE FOOD ON YOUR PLATE 34 | Am Rice BY KATE LOWENSTEIN AND DANIEL GRITZER WHERE, OH WHERE? 38 Tulip Central 13 THINGS 40 Saluting Arlington Cemetery BY EMILY GOODMAN BEST PET PALS A Hare-Raising Rescue EVERYDAY MIRACLES Brief Encounters of a Close Kind BY RACHEL MARTIN FROM THEATLANTIC.COM 50 QUOTABLE QUOTES 62 Chris Stapleton, Shonda Rhimes, Alex Trebek May 2021 RD.COM The Healthy 53 The Benefits of Cuddling BY CHARLOTTE HILTON ANDERSEN 58 News from the World of Medicine 20 Allin a Day's Work 32 Humor in Uniform 43 Laugh Lines 48 Life in These : United States Brain Games 76 117 Quick Crossword, Laughter, the Best and More Medicine 121 Word Power 124 Photo Finish Send letters to letters@rd.com or Letters, Reader’s Digest, PO Box 6100, Harlan, lowa 51593-1600, Include your full name, address, e-mail, and daytime phone number. We may edit letters and use them inall printand elec- tronic media. Contribute your True Stories at rd.com/stories. If we publish one ina print edition of Reader's Digest, we'll pay you $100. To submit humor items, visit rd.com/submit, or write to us at Jokes, 4 South Broadway, 7th Floor, White Plains, NY 10601. We'll pay you $25 for any joke or gag and $100for any true funny story published ina print edition of Reader's Digest un- lesswe specify otherwise in writing. Please include your full nameand address in your entry. We regret that we cannot acknowledge or return unsolicited work. Requests for permission to reprint any material from Reader's Digest should be sent to permissions@tmbi.com. Get help with questions on sub- scriptions, renewals, gifts, address changes, payments, account information, and other inquiries atrd.com/help, or write to us at customercare@rd.com or Reader's Digest, PO Box 6095, Harlan, iowa 51593-1595. FROM TOP: GETTY IMAGES (2). MOVIESTORE/SHUTTERSTOCK. JAMES WOJCIK/TRUNK ARCHIVEé cepmepic Arthritis ©° Revolutionary. SAFE 4 Foundation ice FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT. THE NATURAL WAY. Get back in action with topicals for arthritis aches and pains. Designed with camphor and menthol for temporary pain relief to work more comfort and flexibility into your day. LEARN MORE AT: CHARLOTTESWEB.COM/CBDMEDICREADER’S DIGEST 6 are" [DEAR READER © Hit Refresh OR ME, change is in the air. F The snow is thawing in the town where Susan and J are living. We both got vaccinated (I’ve never been so happy to have type 1 diabetes, which qualified me for early shots). And by the time you read this, our daughter will have been married, surrounded by family, on a Mexican beach. Hooyah! This spirit of change and joy has struck RD too. In this is- sue, you'll find new sections meant to delight you as much as tossing rice at your grinning daughter—ie., a lot. Aknowledge quiz. Sharpen your pencils. Brain Games now features “Fact or Fiction” (page 117) to test your recall and worldliness in equal measure. I scored six and got the bonus question only by cheating and consulting 13 Things on page 40. May you do better. Anew health section. You already know RD’s sister site, thehealthy.com. Now we're curating its content into The Healthy (page 53), full of ad- vice, first person narratives, and medical news. Where, Oh Where? \ There’s nothing like seeing a gorgeous photograph a May 2021 | RD.COM (like the one above) shot somewhere in America and wanting—no, needing to know where the heck it was taken. We turn that irresistible sensation into a visual quiz (page 38). Smile-inducing news. RD editors here and around the world are always finding never-before-seen examples of charity and ingenuity. We're rolling them into A World of Good (page 18). Animal stories! Because who can resist? To continue the celebration of our animals’ ability to bond, Best Pet Pals (page 44) will spotlight one priceless submission to our contest. Finally, on page 1, we introduce RD’s new tagline: “A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World.” As always, we hope to be that friend who brings fun ideas to your kitchen table, who helps everyone laugh and cry together about what makes us all human. Write to let me know whether our new bits get us nearer that goal. And >, thanks for reading! Bruce Kelley, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Write to meat letters@rd.com. FROM TOP: RD PHOTO STUDIO. MATTHEW COHENSS ST TEES ALL IN ONE SPOT ata Peete eee cea etc Ne you money, right? When it comes to insurance, GEICO's your one-stop Bie Solis St Aunt rt Seeley ae ge homeowners, motorcycle, boat, RV insurance, and more. Go to to eee ea nels) GEICO. geico.com | 1-800-947-AUTO | Local Office8 ee. Y | LETTERS NOTES ON THE ae March issu i sau swt = it Does This Dog Know Whether You Have Cancer? My mother was playing bridge at a friend’s house. She never liked going there because of the less-than-friendly Chihuahua. On this particular day, the dog was sniffing all the la- dies; when it came to my mother, it bit her on the calf. The bite was so severe that she had to see a doctor, who discovered the dog had bitten a mole on my mother’s leg that turned out to be melanoma. Mom might not have admitted it, but that little dog saved her life! —JUDY STARKWEATHER Hendersonville, North Carolina 10-Minute Life Fixes I’ve never written to a magazine, but at age 83, Thad to let you know that I’d been battling for this small paragraph in your magazine. —PAT ILIFF Forest, Virginia the charred bottom of my favorite pot and was about to give up. I've gone through so many “this will do it” fixes, but boiling a dish- washer tablet in the pot is the one that finally worked. I’m so grateful May 2021 Your method to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit will give a rough con- version. Go one step further for more accu- racy: After doubling the Celsius temperature and adding 30, count the number of tens above or below 50 in the result and respectively subtract or add that number to find the Fahrenheit equivalent. So: (0°C x 2) + 30 = 30; 30 + 2 = 32°F. Or (100°C x 2) +30 = 230; 230 - 18 = 212°R. With practice, you'll convert in your head faster than the dis- play at the bank can! —DAVID MILLER San Jose, California Rules for Being the Age You Are There are no rules for being a certain age. In my 50s, I learned to ride a horse, took up swim- ming, and raced up the hills of Rio de Janeiro on a motorcycle. In my 60s, I needed a deck, so I googled how to build one. There are no play- books to follow. Jump right in and keep swim- ming (and if you don’t know how, learn!). —ANNETTE THOMAS Clarkston, Michigan Everyday Heroes The story about lighting a runway with car head- lights for an emergency landing was read with a RD PHOTO STUDIO