The vacation countdown has started! My husband Mike and I will start packing soon for our annual trek to Door County, Wisconsin. We’ll enjoy carefree days there with our son, Ben, his wife, Alexis, and our adorable youngest grandchild, Ellie. I’m feeling a bit wistful, as this may be our last August trip to “DC.” Little Ellie starts Pre-K next summer.
At 74, I’ve collected a lifetime of travel memories and they often replay in my mind like movie reels.
The first trip Mike and I took together was our honeymoon to Spring Mill State Park in early January 1977. Mike was still in Optometry School and our funds were tight, so we only stayed two nights. But we had fun hiking in the snow and going on a boat tour through Twin Caves to spot rare blind cave fish. As the only registered inn guests during New Years week, we felt like the Lord and Lady of the castle.
In the mid-1980’s we took our boys on a family camping trip to eastern Canada and stayed one night at a campground in Riviere-du-Loupe, Quebec. The ladies manning the campground office gave each other odd looks when we asked if the pool was open. One of them finally shrugged and said “Oui.” After we jumped in the pool, we understood why our request mystified them. The pool water was North Pole cold. Absolutely frigid. It may have been June in Indiana, but in Quebec, summer season hadn’t started yet!
I was the chief cook and bottle washer on that trip. On our way to a campsite in New Brunswick one evening, I signaled for Mike to pull over at a house with an “Eggs for Sale” sign propped in the yard. I left my impatient husband and two quarreling sons in the van and knocked at the door of the ramshackle farmhouse. A tiny old lady answered and bade me follow her. She and her husband were just finishing their dinner by the light of an oil lamp. They invited me to sit a spell and join them. Knowing the chaos awaiting me back in the van, I thought about asking if they’d adopt me, but instead, I begged off, paid for the eggs and our family headed on to our campsite. But I’ve never forgotten the peaceful kitchen lit by flickering lamplight, nor the kind elderly couple who welcomed a stranger into their home without a moment’s hesitation.
When our boys were teens, Mike and I took an adventure trip I’d been dreaming about since childhood. In junior high I’d read about President Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird, taking a river-rafting trip out west. The pictures accompanying the article intrigued me. Even though I was hardly a sporty kid, the thought of riding river rapids challenged my imagination. In 1997 Mike and I made that dream come true. We took a six-day rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It’s my all-time favorite vacation. We had wonderful travel companions, incredible guides, enjoyed awesome views and took thrilling rides over Class VI rapids. We camped on sandbars, climbing into our tents at dark and awakening with the sun each morning. On day six, I didn’t want it to end.
Not every vacation meets expectations. I’ve been sick on vacations, sprained my ankle right before a cruise and stayed in some awful motel rooms. But for the most part, travel is a joy. It’s fun to discover new places, have opportunities to make new friends and get chances to experience other cultures. It’s a great big, beautiful world out there. Time to pack the suitcases and make more memories!
