No Matter What

When certainty is not an option

Traveling is such an eye-opener, isn’t it? When we met, Chris and I learned that “taking vacations” every summer was something our families shared in common. We had vivid memories of traveling along the Blue Ridge Parkway as kids, our parents dragging pop-up campers behind their cars. The Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah National Parks held so much magic for two kids from flat-earthed Florida. There were creeks to play in, campfires to sit by and horses to ride. And we both remembered that first exciting glimpse of the mountains as we crossed the north Georgia border. I often wondered if our paths had crossed as little kids, and we didn’t even know it. Later, when we had our own children, they exclaimed just as excitedly when they saw the first palm trees as we crossed from Georgia into Florida on Hwy 75. Funny how things come full circle.

We took lots of trips together back in the day, on a shoestring budget and sometimes using a friend’s buddy passes. (Which meant we did a whole lot of camping!) You learn so much about someone when you travel with them. How do they handle stress and new experiences? Are they kind and curious or does everything and everybody have to cater to them? How and what do they choose to pack? How do they handle money? What’s fun in their estimation and what’s definitely not? How openhearted or closed and suspicious are they with new people? What’s their risk tolerance? How do you make decisions about where to go and what to eat? And those long conversations in the car . . . Those were the best!