After nearly 40 years as a pharmacist, Tim Fleishman found himself out of work following a corporate buyout in 2008. But it came at what the 64-year-old Palm Harbor, Florida, resident calls “an opportune moment.”

He says he was close to calling it a career anyway, and ever since he was a child on Long Island, New York, peering into a View-Master at pictures of national parks and other attractions, Fleishman had wanted to drive across the country. Now he would finally have the time.

Tim and his wife Rosemary hit the road one summer day for what turned out to be a two-month journey of more than 14,000 miles, all behind the wheel of their 2008 Toyota RAV4. “It was a great trip,” says Fleishman, a first-time Toyota owner. “Both of us found the RAV to be very comfortable to drive for long periods of time.” He says they averaged about 500 miles a day, using a laptop computer to plot their route and to make hotel reservations. Among their favorite experiences: driving through a famous, enormous redwood tree in California’s Sequoia National Forest. Fleishman raves about the RAV4’s cargo space (they carried two bikes plus luggage) and the impressive fuel economy his base model’s four-cylinder engine delivered, which he estimated to be between 27 and 30 MPG on the highway.

Besides stellar MPG, Fleishman also requires that any vehicle he purchases “must be able to carry four people and four sets of golf clubs.” Which is understandable when you play golf three times a week, as he does. “The RAV4 has absolutely been what I expected; it does everything we want it to do.”

While another cross-country trip to see some of the places they missed is a possibility, Fleishman says the important thing is that they took the first one. Recalling his days filling prescriptions for customers—many elderly—he says he often received unsolicited tips on how to live life to its fullest. “Do the things you want to do while you can,” they told me. “I listened…and I took their advice.”