This week has been a good week. I wake up way too early and can't get back to sleep so by 5:30 a.m. I go ahead and get up so I don't have to rush my morning workout. It paid off as I finally hit my goal of 600 steps on the stair-stepper. I also added a few new positions to my yoga routine. It really is an amazing feeling to hit a fitness goal. I am happy! I am really joyfully happy.
Looking back over my life I know happiness has far out-weighed sadness. So why is it that the sadness and trauma can dominate our memories? I was thinking back a few days ago about where my love for the great outdoors started. I know it was summer vacations with my family as a child. But the first thing that would pop into my head about those trips wasn't probably the most fun part of them.
Colorado was one of my parents favorite destinations. I remember on I think it was our first trip there when I was I believe three and a half. We had rented a cabin on a mountainside near Decker. The first thing my siblings and I did was go running up the hillside, I slipped and rolled back down frightening my Mother, she was sure I'd be seriously injured. Luckily though it was just a few scrapes and bruises and I was back on the hillside having fun in no time. When I was a pre-teen we spent a few days in Red River New Mexico hiking. We were then heading up to Decker Co. to relax and do some fishing. The hiking had been so much fun. We along with most people on the trail stopped along the way and took a drink of water from the mountain stream. Well that probably was not the wisest decision as the next day when we were driving to Decker I came down with a horrible stomach bug. Nothing quite like getting sick in the car all over the back seat while on a road trip. It was so bad my parents had to locate a clinic so I could see a doctor. We did make it to the cabin a few hours later. I spent the days there recovering, wrapped in a blanket sitting on the porch watching my Dad fish. There were many other vacations that were fun without injuries or illness. A trip to Carlsbad Caverns became a favorite place of mine to which I have returned several more times with my own family. My first trip though I did not want to leave as the cool air was the first relief I had in weeks from a burn I received a few weeks prior. My brother had some friends over for a backyard campout. They had a fire going and were roasting marshmallows. His friend Danny's marshmallows were ablaze so he was waving his stick back and forth trying to get the fire out. The marshmallows while still on fire went flying off the stick and landed on my arm. You don't know pain until you have melted burning marshmallows stuck to you. So a burned arm and summer heat were not a good combination. So when I entered that cave and it was in the low 60's... yeah I didn't want to leave.
Summer vacations - always a road trip. They were an annual event growing up. Some years it was a trip to the coast. The mountains were always popular. The summer we lived in New Jersey it was a road trip back to Texas. The following Summer we took a road trip when we moved back. We went to Niagara Falls, Across Canada, then down through Chicago and the Mid-west. Another year we traveled to Durango Colorado and rode the historical Silverton - Durango train. It was not without it's near disasters. There are two trains that run daily in the summer. We were on the second train. It seems that when the first train went through a forested area it triggered a fire. A fire burning very close to the tracks and had spread into the forested area around... that we were now traveling through. I (as you can imagine) was scared of fire. It was a very tense bit of the journey. The train had to pass slowly as some of the rail ties had burned. We soon were past and on the move again. The scenery was beautiful as we traveled along a river gorge. A little ways further the engineer realized that due to the delays the engine was running low on water (steam engine). We had passed a tank a few miles back so he had to stop and reverse back to it. Once he was refilled we were on our way and eventually made it to Silverton albeit a few hours late. This had also delayed the first train from departing Silverton and cut into the time that we had to spend in this cute western town. I did return to Durango as an adult with Trevor. This was a stop on a road trip that just him and I went on one year. We did ride the train and did not have any mishaps. Maybe at a later date I will share the story of the trip I took with him.
I was lucky being the youngest child so in my high school years I got to travel alone with my parents. Road trips were often about the destination even though we went by some places that really warranted further exploration. On a trip to California It was straight across Interstate 10 and into the greater L.A. area until we reached my Uncle's house. While in that area we did get to see and do a lot of fun things including a trip to Disneyland. We then went up to San Jose for a few days and spent part of a day in San Francisco. The drive home took us past Yosemite (did not stop). We crossed the Hoover Dam (did not stop). We did stop for gas in Vegas, but did not even detour for a drive down the Strip. The best though was the Grand Canyon. Oh we stopped, got out of the car, walked to the edge and saw the canyon for about ten minutes. We then returned to the car and headed back home to Texas. I can at least say I've been there!
These trips and many of the others I took as a child, a teen and an adult have created some of my best memories. The time I was able to spend with my own kids, creating memories and adventures with them are priceless. It has also led them to share the same love of travel and adventure that I do. I hope that in the years to come I can continue to create memories with them and create my own. It is the one thing that inspires me to become a better, healthier, person.
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