Jim and I have been going on big trips ever since we got married almost 28 years ago. Most of our traveling has been in the US, but we’ve now made three international trips together. Back in the summer of 2018 we spent a blissful three weeks in France to celebrate our 25th anniversary (one year late). I was struck with a number of tips and ideas that don’t show up in regular travel books or are given a slant with which I don’t agree. So I decided to write a brief travel book of my own, spelling out some of these unconventional ideas. Jim has recently revised it and gotten it up as an e-book on this site and as a paperback and Kindle edition on Amazon. I’d encourage you to get a copy if you’re planning any type of trip, even if you’re not going to Europe. My emphasis is on that area because that’s where we’d just gone, but my ideas are widely applicable. There’s an appendix with tipping info for most of the countries in Europe; I don’t have anything about tipping in, say, Japan, but that’s the sort of thing that’s easily accessible online. Who’s going to tell you, though, to:
Travel
Take Your Hands Off the Wheel–At Least Some of the Time.
Next Wednesday, May 16, Jim and I will be boarding a plane for FRANCE. I said last year that I’d like to visit Paris for our 25th anniversary, but with everything that was going on in 2017 (our move, a big trip already planned that included a family reunion and taking Gideon to grad school) it just didn’t seem doable. There was some talk of perhaps going in the fall, but that just never got off the ground. (Ha.) So we decided to go this year. The Cherry Creek Chorale’s last concert is this weekend, the annual business meeting is next Tuesday, and then the season is over. (You’d think that the Chorale was my job, or something.)
Savor this Fleeting Day–and All the Ones to Come
I had every intention of getting this post written at least by yesterday, but the rush of company, outings, etc., got in the way. It’s Christmas morning. I’m up early because I couldn’t sleep, so here are the thoughts I wanted to get down, and I plan to get the newsletter out later today in between the biscotti-baking, the green-bean casserole making, and the last-minute gift-wrapping flurry.
Vacation Wrapup
I almost always worry that we won’t have enough to do on our trips, a worry that Jim reminds me of when we arrive home after having crammed each day to the fullest. This trip was no different.
Somewhere I read a study on memory that asked, “Would you go on vacation if after it was all over your memories of the trip were erased from your mind?” Would all the money and effort be worth it if you had no memory of what you did? I honestly don’t know. It seems to me that there would be a happy “residue” left in your mind even if specific items were gone.
Vacation Debriefing
I didn’t get much writing done during the two weeks we were gone on our big drive-to-the-east coast/eat-barbecue/hike-in-the-Blue-Ridge-Mountains/attend-the-Charleston-family-reunion/deliver-Gideon-and-his-car-to-grad-school trip. One big lesson from the trip is, Nothing that you worry about ahead of time is too likely to happen, but something totally unexpected will inevitably crop up. So we had gotten on the road two weeks ago, with Gideon’s Subaru Outback packed to the gills. My big worry was the question of how we’d get him a mattress set for his new digs, something that ended up being supremely simple to do.
I Am Having a Small, Cushy Adventure!
This weekend Bible Study Fellowship is having its regional conference in downtown Denver, and as I write this I’m sitting in my luxurious room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Attending the conference isn’t really optional for group leaders, and no, BSF didn’t pay my way. I’m enjoying myself very much and learning a lot. Yesterday afternoon my husband dropped me off at the light rail station and I sat on the train thinking, “This is so much fun! It’s an adventure!” (Honestly, I did think that, or something close to it.) I didn’t come with anyone from our leadership group, and my roommate at the hotel was assigned to me and not someone I know at all. She’s nice and perfectly friendly, but she’s off with her own friends. I came with the attitude that I’d just go with the flow and see who I met up with. Here are some ideas that have occurred to me as the weekend has progressed:
1. They aren’t trying to confuse you.
My lack of anxiety about this and other outings, something that
I Get Reminded of Southern Gothic While Hiking in the West.
I’m not completely sure what this post has to do with happiness or intentionality, except that unexpected connections can be a source of pleasure. So this shot was taken on our hike last week, the one that was supposed to have us end up at Blue Lake but which ended considerably before that because there was so much snow still on the trail.
As I took a look backward and snapped this picture suddenly the words “a worn path” popped into my head. And I remembered the short story with that title by the Southern writer Eudora Welty, about an old black woman who goes into town to get medicine for her grandson and who meets with various obstacles along the way. Nothing very dramatic happens, although she does meet up with a hunter who points a gun at her and also falls into a ditch. Instead, we gradually find out about her situation and her character. Her grandson swallowed lye three years before, and whatever it is she’s getting for him is “soothing medicine.” We know that the story isn’t too long after the Civil War, as she says, “I never did go to school, I was too old at the Surrender.” And we know that she and her grandson are alone in the world. At the end of the story she has made it to Natchez, gotten the medicine, and is heading back home. And that’s it. (If you’d like to read the whole story, you can access it through the wonderful University of Virginia website that has digitized many works. If you’d like to get a more comic side of Welty, you can read “Why I Live at the P. O.” According to good old Wikipedia, Welty was also a photographer, and this story was inspired by a picture she took of a woman ironing in the back room of a small Southern post office.)
Lessons From Mom’s Grand Canyon Trip.
I was so reminded of my mom while I was on our horseback-riding trip last week. The photo below is a family treasure, taken in 1948 (as you can see by the notation in the lower left corner). She’s the fifth person down from the top of the line, the one with the scarf on her head. Take a look and then scroll down below the picture to read the rest of the story.
Always Take the Four-Hour Horse Ride.
Here’s the second of our two wonderful guides on our wonderful horseback ride that we took last week in Ouray. (You may have wondered why the previous horseback-ride-related picture was of a cowboy and his dog, with no horses. It was such a cute shot that I couldn’t resist.)
It’s the People Who Make the Experience.
Here’s a picture of one of the two guides who took us on our wonderful, wonderful four-hour horseback-riding trip last week outside Ouray, Colorado through the company Action Adventures. The other guide will show up in a later post. These guys were just great: friendly, conversational, helpful . . . you name it. They took us on an absolutely magnificent back-country ride to the top of Mt. Baldy. (If you’d like to get a flavor of how steep and narrow the trail was you can watch this video of a similar ride, or portions thereof–it’s not terribly high quality but shows the conditions quite well. As far as I know it’s not associated with Action Adventures.)