Traveling

Although I have always felt like a traveler, in "most circles" I am not.  Growing up, I can still remember  the plans and preparations each year for the big vacation.  Actually, our vacations were not that big, but to our family they were HUGE! 

My father dearly loved to travel.  I imagine he logged in more miles on a mere Sunday (after church) than many did on a weekend trip.  He was his best behind the wheel, tossing one of his children the map to verify we were on the correct road, which we always were.  You couldn't lose him anywhere, well, maybe once that I remember.  He usually began dreaming of the next summer vacation as soon as we returned from the current summer's.  His goal was to make it to each state in the continental U.S., and he had even mapped out the really big trip he and my mother were to make the year he would retire.  He didn't make it to retirement, but he passed on the adventure of travel to his three children.

My mother was quite the opposite actually.  She was great with accounting and saving for the big summer vacation, but she never understood maps, north from south or east from west.  She was the one who kept track of each expenditure of the trip, and could tell you to the penny how much was spent on each vacation. He loved to tease her when she would ask if we were going to run by and see a relative in Arkansas on our way to Colorado.  I am sure this was due to the fact that her family never owned a car.  I only remember of her telling of one trip, riding on a train to see an aunt one summer.  She did enjoy my father's big plans of vacation, but she definitely loved home.   We would be 50 miles from home and she would have the house key pulled from the bottom of her purse, ready to open the door and be "home."

The trips my father planned were wonderful memories.  Along the way, he pointed out things he had read in travel brochures.  As each of us were older, he had us watch the maps, explaining the part of country and how many states we could say we had been in, many times in one day.  He worked very hard and only received two weeks off a year as I was older, so many times our vacation was only for a week when I was younger.   With three children, the cost prohibited any longer away from home also.

We tried to continue the tradition and take our children on vacations also.  While growing up, my husband's family vacations usually were planned around the best fishing spots, as his father was an avid fisherman.  It seemed it was to a state lake or Colorado areas for trout fishing.  Fishing was not important to my husband, so we have tried various locations for family vacations, and only wish we could have even taken more trips to new locations while all three of our children were home.

Traveling is  defintely on my mind as my husband and I just returned from our first big trip out of North America.  Well, I guess not our officially first trip, as we surprised the kids with a trip to Jamaica one summer for a few days, but this was the big "E" trip to Europe.  My mind is still swirling with what I have seen and experienced.  Even though this was not the next big trip on our personal agenda, it turned out it became one in order to accompany an older family member on possibly their last big trip.

Having just returned, I have come to a few conclusions:

-Don't knock the U.S.    Even with rising costs and crazy political campaigns, it is the best place on      Earth.  We are so blessed.

-Do travel outside the U.S. at least once in your life.  "We" are not alone in the world.  Unreal history has occurred, unreal conditions for others and our politics does affect others. We must pray for everyone in the world, no matter the religion, views, etc.----there is another side to every story.

-I am not a tour follower.   Give me a guide book and let me see things for myself.  (My ears still hurt from straining to understand English from non-native English speaking guides who talk continually. Believe it or not, but silence can be golden.   Yes, jabber mouth that I am, has said that.)

-I prefer land to rivers for travel.  The two-lane roads I saw from the river kept calling my name, more loudly as time continued.

-Two weeks is a very long time away from home.  It is true that your genetic make-up is both a part of your mother and your father. 

-Travel light.  Dress for yourself when traveling.  Due to our accommodations and tour schedule we were too concerned about the appropriateness of our attire and traveling companions, and next time will travel much lighter.  One usually has soap and water closeby if needed.

-I am not as fearful as I had thought.  To be perfectly honest, I was a bit anxious about this venture.  Now it was not that the plane would be high-jacked or a bomb would explode in some random place overseas, but I was uneasy about being in areas where I did not know the native language, could not read the native language and would feel helpless.   It surprised me that these were the moments I tended to enjoy more than the controlled "tour" moments.  In our free time we were given, my husband and I ventured off on our own, not knowing the language, not carrying our pocket language dictionary and merely a map.  Even though we were lost a few times, we, maybe I should only speak for myself, enjoyed it immensely.  Fear never entered the picture.   We would find individuals who spoke broken English, but also experienced clerks in stores and restaurants who did not speak English and through bits and pieces we made it fine, and these are the experiences that I will remember along with zillions of photos of older than dirt buildings and cathedrals and statues that were breathtaking.

-And, the best conclusion of all, is that the destination is not the important part of travel.  It is sharing the travel with those you love, and I did.   It was with great regret that "vacation" ended yesterday and I had to kiss the love of my life good-bye this morning as he left for work. 

Now, let's see.....I believe I will pull out the atlas......next summer is only a year away. 

 

 

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