The Next Adventure

Speaking of my childhood travels, the next thing that came to my mind was a big trip that my sister Beth and I had the privilege of going on with my maternal grandmother as young girls. As I mentioned previously, we grew up in Minnesota. My grandma lived in Ohio. So, the summer I was seven and my sister was five, my grandma decided to take us along with her and her best friend Betty on a trip to Mackinaw Island, Michigan. It may not sound too exciting to you, but here were two young Midwestern girls who were going on the adventure of a lifetime, young as we were. It started out as a long, long drive. Back in those days, most travel was done in an automobile. So, we drove, and we drove, and we drove. For what seemed like forever. We stopped at a roadside rest area and had a picnic for our lunch. Sitting in the back of Grandma's car, Beth and I talked and watched out the windows and probably goofed around more than we should have. It was quite an undertaking for a grandma to do what she did. But our grandma was a real trooper. My first recollection of the trip (after the lengthy drive, of course!) was the motel we stayed in. It was a typical '60s motel. Dark paneled walls, floral bedspreads, crappy, dirty carpet, but there were two beds and that was all I was yearning for. A place to lay my weary body down. And, boy did I ever. I laid my head down (pink sponge rollers and all) and did not move a muscle till morning. I felt like I died that night. When I woke the next morning, I was in the exact same position as I had fallen asleep in. We spent most of the rest of the trip after that first night in the car taking in the sights. I do remember driving across the big bridge and that was very impressive.

Following a week in Michigan, Grandma and Betty took us back to Grandma's house in Ohio. She had a neat little house that I had only been to once before. She had a sun porch at the back of the house where we ate meals. One evening Beth and I we're sitting at the table eating dinner. For some reason, something struck us funny and we started laughing and Grandma told us to stop. Well, that was all we needed to hear...stop laughing. It was like when you are sitting in church and something strikes you funny and you know you shouldn't laugh, but you can't help it. Well, we could NOT stop laughing. It escalated to the point where Grandma finally threatened to put one of us down in her creepy basement to separate us. So, guess who won the honors? Me, of course since I was the oldest. So, she made me climb down the rickety ladder to her basement (cellar, actually) and I was totally FREAKED out, to say the least. She made me sit down there for a long, long time. When she finally came down to get me, believe me, I had learned my lesson. And to this day, I never forget that day in the creepy cellar whenever I want to laugh at something at an inappropriate time.

That was certainly a memorable trip, if only for the lesson I learned from my grandma. Travels may not always be exotic, exciting, or fantastic, but you can always learn something. I know I sure did and will never, ever forget it.
Forever traveling,
Becky Sue

Always on My Mind

Travel. That is. Always on my mind. Day in and day out. I dream of it. All. The. Time. I don’t even consider myself a dreamer, but I do consider myself a traveler, even if only in my mind most days. Maybe some call it wanderlust. Others may call it dreaming, but where it came from, I am not sure. I just know that since my earliest recollections, I was in love with traveling. My very earliest memory of traveling was of my mom, my older brother, my younger sister, and I leaving on a plane from Minnesota to Ohio to see my grandma. My grandpa had just had his fourth heart attack and was in very bad condition. The last thing my mom said to my dad was, “There are eggs and bacon in the fridge for you!” She shouted this to him as he walked away from our plane, having helped her get settled with all three of us. (In those days, you walked right up to the plane on a stairway, not through a jetway). I can only imagine the fear in her heart knowing what she would be facing when we got to Ohio, let alone trying to entertain all three of us kids on a fairly long plane trip. Yikes! My brother was five years old, I was three, and my sister was a newborn. Wow. What an undertaking. Nevertheless, we did it and that memory has stuck in my brain since then, bubbling back up from time to time. The excitement of being on a real plane was utterly mindblowing for a mere three year old. Back in the day (early 1960s) the flight attendants were called “stewardesses” and wore special uniforms and little hats. I still remember that detail like it was yesterday. Not much else is fresh in my mind, but I will always remember the feeling of lifting off the ground to fly away into the wild blue yonder. What a thrill in my little heart!

Not a day passes in my current life that I don’t think of traveling somewhere. I have had many opportunities to do so and I am so thankful for that fact.

With this blog, I hope to recount many of my travels and even to discuss some of the trips I have only dreamed of taking and hope to take in the future.

Please join me on this adventure! I look forward to having you go along for the ride.

Forever traveling,

Becky Sue