So Many Things...

...started on this trip

I love it when an old photo drops out of a file, or slips out of a long-ago read book, or appears if by magic. Broads like us are riddled with memories, and this photo has reminded me of a trip that was the start of so many life adventures. I’m a bit dizzy now thinking about it.

I left home for a job in Montana a few months after I graduated from college. I spent the summer working as a camp director, then took a job as a Field Director for the Big Sky Girl Scout Council after a simple phone interview, and literally drove off into the sunrise at the tender age of 20. I had no idea what I was doing, but that always makes for the best stories in the end.

I still have no idea what I’m doing, and that’s why I have so much fun.

Anyway, I had an old Land Cruiser with radishes painted on the side, a KMart tent, a sleeping bag, a cooler, 34 road maps, my Girl Scout Compass, several sharp knives, and most likely extra beer. Somehow, I talked a high school friend into riding with me, and she didn’t last long. I had a penchant for taking back roads, throwing the Cruiser into 4-wheel drive, and pulling over in the middle of nowhere to scale a mountain.

My friend was not as adventurous, and when I put her on a train to send her home, she wasn’t speaking to me. Years later, we connected again, two lives that went in very different directions, and sadly, she passed away recently. I remember her now, smiling at that picnic table in the photo, and trying hard to understand what in the hell was wrong with me. She was a lovely woman, a great mother, and thank heavens she had a forgiving heart.

Me? Well, that tent turned into another one, and another one, and then I tried a small camper, and that was stupid because there was no place to store it, it always broke, it needed insurance, and it never felt like camping. Then I tried a tent trailer that was a pain in the ass because the snaps were too tight, and it almost needed a crane to lift the top. So, back to a tent and a new cot I plan to try out in a few weeks.

That bold drive West opened up a fabulous world to me. I’ve always thought that one bold step makes the next one easy, until you are racing through the world unafraid and always ready for the next adventure. I also know that my kind of life isn’t for everyone. It would be really crowded in the middle of nowhere if everyone were there.

I’m still drawn to escaping with my tent, and I have this constant desire to load up the truck and head West. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that both my children and their families feel the same way. I love these little hills where I live, but my heart will never live here full-time. Who knows where this love will take me?

I’ll never forget turning my head as I was leaving my family’s red-brick house in Big Bend, Wisconsin, and watching my parents waving goodbye to me in their pajamas. I’m about to head North in a few days for one of my family triage trips, and I always drive past that house on the way in and wave. They left that house a long time ago, but you can’t erase some memories.

Sometimes, I can still see my parents standing there, all worried and waving goodbye as I slipped out of sight. Sometimes, I can also see the young woman that I was that day. The same woman who still sleeps in a tent, drives off main highways, jumps out of the truck to climb a hill, but now she drinks wine and not much beer.

We should always keep the fun and exciting parts of who we were and who we will always be.

And now, as we did in the old days of journalism…###…this one is over.