Why travel?

 Nov 16, 2019

            

Jean, Lew and Regina

 

 Our first stop after leaving D.C. was Richmond, VA, where we parked the RV in our friend’s driveway. Instead of rushing from museum to museum, we were happy to be able to sit back and talk with our friends (three different ones, as it turns out, over the span of four days). In our conversations with The Rev. Jean Pupke (where we stayed), she asked us some penetrating questions, one of which precipitated this blog post. Why do we travel? Is it to see other cultures, experience new places, see friends, be challenged, be amazed? She asked this about an upcoming trip to New Zealand/Australia, but it got me thinking about THIS trip. Why are we spending 19 months in a 33 ft motorhome, never in one place very long, braving the elements, enduring the inconveniences? Why, indeed?! I can think of six good reasons:

TIMING

Going full time in our RV has long been a dream of ours and in 2018, the stars aligned. My mother had died in 2016, so I was no longer her caregiver. Sandi and her family were leaving in June on what was to be a 4-year sailing adventure, to Mexico for 18 months and then on to Polynesia, New Zealand, and Australia. I was no longer needed on that front either. Alas, there was nothing holding us in Anacortes; the timing was good, our health was good (well, except for Lew’s prostate cancer surgery 10 days before we were scheduled to leave), we were still young enough to hike and manage the rigors of travel, and the country was calling. Do we need other reasons to travel?

FRIENDS

Yes!  Friends, relatives, and acquaintances were also calling. We wanted to see people we never, or almost never, got to see. This part of the adventure has been particularly satisfying. All in all, we have visited with people in 25 different locations throughout the country (and even in Mexico and Canada!) Sometimes our stays have been long: 3 weeks in the St. Louis area this spring with Lew’s best friend from college (and our best friends for years) (and seeing them this Thanksgiving on our way back west); 2 months in and out of my brother’s house in New Hampshire this summer/fall; 

Lew, Bonnie, Serafin and Mike in Wilton, NH

 1 week at an old high school friend’s home in Wisconsin; 1 week in Tucson to spend time with my old tennis partner from Panama City, FL days; and 4 1/2 weeks in Salt Lake City to be near daughter, Erin, and her family last November and another 5-6 weeks this winter over Christmas. It was especially nice to be able to spend more time with Erin since it is harder now that we have moved to Washington.

 Some visits were brief, but meaningful – like spending time with two college acquaintances in Connecticut – folks I had reconnected with at my 50^th reunion in May – whom I now feel closer to than I ever did in college, thanks to 3 wonderful days together this fall.

Doug, Julia and us in Connecticut

Reuniting with Karen and Harvey Joyner

Or how strange was it to run into a friend and past UU minister from our days in Colorado while attending a service at the UU Church in Richmond, VA? What a gift to see Harvey and Karen after what must have been at least 15 years and to spend a few hours contemplating the trajectory of our lives since we last connected.








Or the afternoon we spent in St. George, UT with one of my mom’s last surviving friends from Junior High, driving out to see one of her beloved red rock parks and treating her to lunch out. For me, it was an important connection to my past.

We have stopped to see folks we haven’t seen in 30-40 years and people we’ve met along a trail and have barely known. We’ve visited with friends from elementary, Jr and Sr High school, with relatives in Portland, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Utah, New Hampshire, and Virginia, and with people from Colorado Springs who hold a special place in our hearts. Yes, visiting people, connecting, re-connecting has been a very important reason for this trip.  The museums and sights we see are great, but it’s the people that make it all worthwhile.

PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES

                One goal we set for ourselves was to visit the rest of the Presidential libraries (we’d already seen the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton museums). For us it has been an opportunity to learn more about the times in which they served, more about the character of the man himself, and to assess or reassess the nature of that Presidency. With only the Hoover and Reagan libraries left on the agenda for the remainder of this trip, we have definitely fulfilled this objective. We have seen the LBJ, Bush and Bush libraries/museums in Texas, the Lincoln museum in Illinois, FDR’s library in New York, Ford’s in Michigan, and Nixon’s in California. And, though officially not “Presidential Libraries” we have seen museums dedicated to the presidencies of Garfield and Wilson. We walked away from all these libraries with (often) unexpected respect for the individual and what he was trying to accomplish in his presidency (even when we disagreed with his politics). These visits have served as great history lessons.

NATIONAL PARKS

Another goal of ours has been to visit as many National Parks as we can – hoping to see those we’d missed in the past, especially those in the "other half" of the country! By National Parks, I had in mind places like Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Tetons – areas of pristine beauty, wilderness, serenity, peace. And we have gone to those – Big Bend NP in Texas, for instance, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, or Death Valley NP in California. All beautiful in their grandeur and vastness, with miles of hiking trails and opportunities to breathe deeply. Others, like the Redwoods, just take your breath away.

What we weren’t as prepared for were the “other” national parks – the ones in the middle of Urban corridors, the historic parks that celebrate something other than nature, the ones that give us a glimpse into our history (and, thus, into ourselves). These, too, are administered by the National Park Service.  The NPS has preserved pieces of history and culture: persons, events and activities that show us who we were and who we are. There are so many National Historic Parks, so much to learn about, absorb, and appreciate. We’ve barely begun that process in visiting the following: Lowell, MA (the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in America), the Shenandoah Valley, Chaco Canyon, the Cuyahoga Valley, the Dayton Aviation Heritage Park, Harper’s Ferry, Lewis and Clark, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, New Bedford Whaling, Gettysburg, Women’s Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt, First Ladies, Fort Ticonderoga, Golden Spike, Knife River Indian Villages, Saint-Gauden’s, and the Booker T Washington National Historic Park.

There are also many National Monuments which celebrate places of national significance – including outstanding geologic features, seashores, and places of historic importance. We have visited only a few: Aztec Ruins, Canyon De Chelly, Casa Grande, Chiracahua, Fort Union, Grand Portage, White Sands, Coronado. 

We are so thankful that so many people had the foresight to see the need for these places and events to be preserved and maintained for all Americans to enjoy, learn from, and appreciate. It is to their hard work and perseverance that we owe our gratitude. Which leads me to the next reason for taking this trip…

HISTORY LESSONS                                                                 

            We wanted a hands-on history lesson – we’ve certainly gotten more than we bargained for and we’ve barely scratched the surface! Everywhere you turn as you drive through the country there’s some interesting history to discover. Small towns, big cities – they all have their local heroes, their disasters and triumphs, their ups and downs. Traveling across the country you can drink it all in – or choose what you drink because there is just too much! Some history resonates with us more strongly, some challenges us, some disgusts us. Much of it makes us think: about who we are, what is important,  the role that luck plays in history, the meaning of progress, poverty in a rich nation, man’s inhumanity to man, rights (and wrongs), and so many other unanswered questions. All of it, all the history of this country, is part of us today – Native American history, the American revolution, the industrial revolution, westward expansion, slavery, civil war, world wars, civil rights protests, presidential successes and failures – it is all a part of us, of what makes this country (and by extension, you and me) what it is today.

We will need some time to digest all we’ve seen and read about and heard on this trip. For me, it’s the stories of real people who have made history come alive. It has become personal. How lucky we’ve been to have soaked up just a tiny bit of that history on our travels.

TO SEE THE COUNTRY

So this brings me to my 6^th, and final, reason for wanting to take this trip. We wanted to see the country. We’ve lived and traveled in Europe, we’ve seen some parts of the United States, but we hungered for more. We live in an amazing country, geographically diverse, religiously diverse, ethnically diverse, politically diverse, and, yet, the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. I have particularly enjoyed seeing the Midwest – those fly-over states to which we on the coasts pay little attention. Although I love where we live, I can readily see why people like living in Iowa, or Wisconsin, or Michigan, or Missouri. All the states we have visited have their own beauty – not the same as what I’m used to, but beautiful, nonetheless. I see why people rave about the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley, how someone can love the hustle and bustle of a big city or the serenity of New England. I have especially appreciated the fact that wineries can now be found in all 50 states – and some of it, from places you never would have expected, is quite good! I’ve loved tasting maple syrup in Vermont and apple butter in Pennsylvania.

Each state, each experience, has given us a new and different perspective on our lives and on what it is like in other parts of the country. Every state is different and it’s that difference that makes it so interesting and has made this trip so fulfilling. If the ultimate goal of travel is to be changed – then this trip has been a great success. Our understanding about so much has increased; our perspectives have grown and changed; our appreciation has expanded; and our gratitude overflows. As Mark Twain said, "Travel is fatal to Prejudice."

Billings-March-Rockefeller National Historic Park