"Teacher and Traveler" introduction.

When I was growing up my parents took my three siblings and me on a yearly summer vacation to visit our extended family.  We alternated between seeing my father’s family in Minnesota, my mother’s family in Vermont, and my grandmother who lived in Florida.  Although none of the places that we visited was tourist attractions, it was the feeling of going on an adventure that I really enjoyed. Our trips were the highlight of my childhood and, once I started a family of my own, I knew that I wanted to give my children this same sense of adventure.  The difference between my parents and me is that they went on their vacations out of a sense of filial duty.  Today, since my whole family lives nearby, I knew that I could take the kids anywhere that I wanted.  The only reason to go on a trip, then, was to make some memories. Our vacations have helped to bind us together through shared experiences.  I know that this is a cliché but, just because it is a cliché, that doesn’t make it any less true.  All of the trips have been the effort worth it because they allowed us to spend some quality time together.  In addition, they became a way for me to reward myself for grinding my way through another year of work.  For me, there is no better way to pat myself on the back than to spend time with my family. 

The fun for me is the challenge of laying out a good vacation.  It provides me with a brief respite from my work life.  The planning, and the trip itself, get me out of my rut for a while and explore what other cities, and countries, have to offer.  The key is to get an anchor event for every place that we are going to visit.  Once I have the event, then I start working on the hotels and all of the other logistics that go into a well laid out vacation.  My personal preference is to visit new places to see the best that they have to offer, whether it is a museum, or a major attraction that the city is proud of.  When the kids were small I could do whatever I wanted as long as I incorporated some fun side trips, like going to an amusement park; but as they got older I had to bend and do what they wanted to do, like going to the beach or build in an afternoon for shopping.  Compromise has become a big part of our time together.

            When we first started taking our family trips, I was very concerned about money, so we took many car trips.  I prefer driving to any other mode of transportation because I feel at peace while in the car.  While driving on an extended road trip, I am forced to slow down.  I know that no matter what I do I won’t be able to get to my destination quickly, so I settle in for a long ride and allow my mind to wander.  The constant drone of the car propelling itself down the road blocks out all distractions, and the vibrations that my vehicle emits have a calming effect.  To ensure that I am comfortable on a long ride I sit on a soft pillow, and then stuff a second pillow at the small of my back, next to my lumbar, to avoid back pain.  In effect, I become locked into position into my seat, just like the drivers at the Indianapolis 500.  Yet, I feel free.  I like to drive through the night because when it is dark out, and there is little traffic on the road, I can I work myself into a trance.  Before I know it, the hours have flown by and through concentrated thought; I have exhausted myself mentally and physically.  Finally, at the end of a long road trip, I park the car, and unbundle myself from my seat.  My whole body creaks and groan as I stretch while I get used to standing on my legs again, but I feel completely satisfied.

For me, the destination isn’t as important as having the whole family do the trip together; there is no ultimate Mecca that I feel like I have to visit and that gives me a lot of freedom to mix up the type of trip that our family takes.  We can go to Europe, or not.  There is no place where I have a burning desire to visit and, when we first started out, the only rule was that our destination had to be within a ten-hour drive.  Over time, when money became less of a concern, we started to take cruises.  New Orleans is only a twelve-hour drive so we took many ships out of that city and, when we had exhausted all of the destinations out of New Orleans, we started to fly to other ports. 

Even when the trip doesn’t go well, I would argue that the vacation was still worth it because we had a shared experience.  For example, when we drove from Cape Canaveral back to Louisville, it took us about eighteen hours in the car.  We sat in a traffic jam in Atlanta for three hours in the middle of the hot August sun.  By the end of the drive, I was carsick.  For the first and only time, I had to turn the driving over to my son because I literally couldn’t sit up straight.  I was exhausted, hot, and dehydrated.  Yet, even this drive I don’t regret because we all suffered through it together and we still laugh about it to this day.  On the other hand, I didn’t repeat the mistake of driving through the afternoon sun in a southern city during the summer months.  

  One final reason to travel is because it makes my family appreciate what we have.  After seeing the poverty of Belize City and Mazatlán, for example, and observing how the unfortunate live, we are better able to suffer through our relatively small inconveniences of congested traffic and long checkout lines.  We didn’t expect to see the poor people; that experience was just a residual of a long bus trip, but it is something that will always stay with us.  Often the true adventure is experiencing something that we never expect to have seen or done.