(I love
a road trip. Short or long, out and back same day or for weeks - I love road
trips. As a child, my parents didn't just take road trips, they were always
on a quest when we went somewhere - anywhere - and we always had such a grand
time. This story is the result of remembering my daddy's contribution to my
sense of adventure.)
Once each year,
from 1950 to 1965, my daddy packed up the family and went camping for thirty
days. Each year we visited one location, rotating annually from northern Mexico
to northern California to northern Oregon to northern Washington, going as
far East as Highway 395 and as far West as the Pacific shore. Each spot Daddy
chose had its own unique beauty and his love for the outdoors, his spontaneous
enthusiasm, made learning how to enjoy that beauty easy.
He would read
about the places we would go through and go to, absorbing historical details
and trivial minutiae like a sponge, squeezing the information back out to
quench the thirst for knowledge he had instilled in us. He would take us for
drives or hikes or boat rides, pointing out the living things hiding in plain
sight, showing how the plants were tailored to their environment, sharing
the secrets of wildlife habits, telling us how to look at nature and what
we saw when we found it.
Each trip he
would show us by example how to walk gently and considerately on the earth,
how to pass through the environment with as little or less impact as the creatures
living there. He taught us to be unashamed and unapologetic about being tourists,
to stop in our tracks and gape at the wonder of something. Daddy taught us
to take time out to commune with nature, to soak up the serenity of our surroundings,
to be healed and regenerated by the richness of the wild areas. He taught
us to enjoy the simple pleasures, how to find the everyday miracles, to stand
in awe of the diversity of our planet and to treasure our experiences.
Now, thanks
to my daddy, my vacations, no matter where – city or country – or
how short or long, are made into adventures that renew and affirm the child-like
joy I have in exploring my world. Such a gift.