Travel Memories

Travel Memories

One of the blessings of Old Age is the memories that certain stimuli floods into consciousness. I find this particularly stemming from travel experiences. Wonderful memories of fantastic times spent mostly with Fred. He loved to see how people were building things, how they made a living, and travel wasn’t just a destination; it was an experience.

Certain sounds, images, smells stimulate memories like worm holes to emerge from the past and give me the pleasure of reliving cherished past experiences. I’m mostly just going to talk about travel memories here. Usually pleasurable; sometimes not, yet still reflective. Here are some:

The call of, or even the mention of a whippoorwill’s, takes me to the cabin east of Warsaw on the Lake of the Ozarks. And it carries with it other related memories, like water skiing and the chicken on the grill that is called “done,” when it’s black. And the declaration by a somewhat inebriated skier that “I’m just not coordinuffinated.”

Travel programs on TV: Big Bend National Park: The walk I took alone on a path along the Rio Grande River, because for some reason Fred didn’t want to go. Peaceful, except for my concern of being alone on a mostly deserted path with a number of men.

Smoky National Park: puts me on a beautiful forested parkway traveling north.

Bear cubs: I see three cubs in a parking lot, no mother bear in view, with Ted going closer to them and they, curious, coming closer to him. I was concerned when they were approaching each other, but howling with laughter as both Ted and the bear cubs suddenly become frightened and ran in opposite directions.

And I remember a bear along the side of the road in Yellowstone; and the policeman who drove in and made all the cars keep on going. And a bear along a wooded road in Idaho.

I see a place on TV and realize, “I’ve been there!” Here are some:

Up the tramway on Corcovado Mountain to the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. The beach with its view of Sugarloaf Mountain. Kite sailers off the cliffs. The botanical garden. The Carnival with male cross-dressed dancers and the photo with one on each side of Fred with his arms round them. And the gangs of homeless children, and the several stories high apartments with no roofs.

The trip up the Amazon to the Aria Towers on the Rio Negro tributary where Jacques Cousteau explored. This tributary is also the subject of a featured film of Johnny Moris going up it at Wonders of Wildlife, which I also love. The baby caiman (alligator) that peed on Fred in the boat. The monkey that jumped on Fred’s shoulders and started screaming and jumping up and down. Eating piranha and lots of pumpkin. The Japanese tourists who went swimming off the helicopter landing into anaconda infested waters. The 40 watt light bulbs and the screened-in bathrooms on the outside edges of the pie-shaped towers. You had to bring in the toilet paper at night in case it rained in. And the rain while we were out in a boat that didn’t come in drops; it came in sheets of water.

The Eiffel Tower. Arc de Triomphe (I’ve been in the intersection that most views are from, and up in it.) The Louve with its highlight, the Mona Lisa. The painting is much smaller than I expected, but in no way a disappointment. Beautiful. Notre-Dame in 2016, before the 2020 fire. Paris Disney. The one-day bus tour of London (weather shortened due to Houston flooding._Madrid. Beautiful buildings and bull fight. Met a couple there who are neigbors of Mike and Christa’s.

Beautiful Catholic churches and cathedrals from Sydney to France, to America.

The Danube River and the monastery with the elaborate painted ceilings and the toilets that were holes in the floor. (I think the bathroom part was the monastery in Greece.) St. Peters Cathedral, Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens, museums and concert in concert hall in Vienna. And Sherry’s excitement: stopping at a pool and going swimming on the way in. And Salisburg, it’s castle and fountain, on the back to Munich. The huge street coocoo clock in Munich, the smoke-filled airport terminal and the art museum.

The rude, insolent antiquities and monastery guide who went off and left us, and the taxi driver who took advantage of Sherry and me in Athens. And the missed Greek Island tour because they came for us but wouldn’t take us even though we had paid. And the Acropolis and Parthenon we were able to walk to from the hotel in Athens.

And on a different trip, this time with Fred instead of with Sherry, the beauty of Lake Como in northern Italy. And the road so curved there were mirrors to alert you of what was coming. The Italian Lake Como area guide who didn’t know who Perry Como was. The cathedral in Milan. The Switzerland mountain train tour. The Lion of Lucerne monument. Oh, wait, Sherry and I picked up the Lion monument on the first part of our driving tour from Munich through Switzerland, northern Italy, Austria and back to Munich.

Flying into Cairns, Australia. The waterfalls, the native dancers, the Great Barrier Reef via catamaran. The submarine tour of the Reef viewing the fish and coral. The picnic tour into the rainforest and river area nearby. The Sydney Harbor and bridge, with beautiful music broadcast from a street fair. The beautiful Catholic cathedral. Attending a gay-themed (and heavily gay-attended) play in the Sydney Opera House. Aires Rock and the aborigine in the mall picking lice from her man’s hair. The sightseeing flight over an outback canyon in a plane whose oil gage showed zero. The flies trying to fly into your nose for moisture. The fog of the Australian Blue Mountains, a stay with a farm family and a ride in his small plane. Visiting Louise and Ted near Adelaide, the white kangaroos, tasting kangaroo meat, sheep shearing and visiting Kangaroo Island. The sightseeing tour of the beautiful Indian Ocean seascape between Adelaide and Melbourne. The fairy penguins coming in from the sea, and the very narrow, busy streets of Melbourne. The beauty flying into and circling before landing on New Zealand’s north island, and the curve so sharp on the South Island that the bus had to back up to make it up it. The New Zealand reindeer farm. The Mauri dancers and the Antarctic Museum.

The Golden Gate Bridge and Park. Visiting Amy and the beauty of Sausalito and the San Franciso Bay. And Alcatraz. The beauty of Lake Tahoe. The 1980 trip west taking Ron and Amy with his to escape the drought back home, and the 2014 trip Fred and I took using time shares that repeated much of the 1980 trip. Up the northern coast of California through the Redwoods, the beautiful Oregon coast, Bremerton Island, Crater Lake, up the Columbia River (the waterfalls, the Salmon gates, the Stonehenge replica and the wind farms). Another time, following the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to their headwaters. Yellowstone. Mount Rushmore and the Badlands.

The Grand Canyon probably 5 times, once covered with snow – never enough times. The guide at the Grand Canyon who told us, “You picked a great time to come: if you had come a million years ago, it wouldn’t have been here yet; and if you came a million years from now, it won’t be here then either.” And “It’s not who you know; it’s who know you!”

Mount Rainier from Sherry’s bedroom window. Denali (Mt. McKinley) gorgeous and in full sunlight (it’s often cloudy). The hazardous snow fields with fissures near Denali, and in some places in the northern Canadian Rockies. All the dead salmon at the end of their trek up an Alaska. The sheer size and isolation of Alaska. I loved going there, but I wouldn’t want to be stranded there for a long period of time. A spur of the moment trip to Banff and the Canadian Rockies and a wonderful geological museum in Calgary. Niagara Falls, especially from the Canadian side. Visiting Mary and Peter in western New York state just before Betty passed away. Nova Scotia seascape, fall color, and wineries with Mike and Christa.

Family wedding on the beach in Maine. Boston, Philadelphia, Gettysburg, (very heavy air at one of the battlefields), Hershey PA., Richmond, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Jefferson’s Monticello, Jackson’s Hermitage, and Madison’s Montpelier, the strange feelings of familiarity as soon as we pulled into the long driveway there; the stifling heavy air in the room where he penned much of the Constitution.

New York City. I remember standing in the South Tower one year before 9/11. United Nations Headquarters, Chrysler Building, the Statue of Liberty. Chicago. New Orleans. Atlanta. Savannah. Louisville, Chattanooga, Vicksburg, Jacksonville. Short cruise in 2014 to an island in Bahamas where the Atlantis Aquarium is located. Circled Florida into Keys but went inland to avoid Miami, then back up through the Everglades and southern side of Florida. Visiting with Sherry at Venice. One winter in a trailer park in Bradenton. Loved the Amish restaurant in Sarasota. Florida panhandle.

And Hawaii, 1998 I think. 80 degree perfect weather. Honolulu, Cultural center, Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Memorial, Maui and Kauai.

Also Phoenix, Tuson, Boulder Dam, all across Arizona, Santa Fe New Mexico. Denver. A gun museum in Cody, Wyoming. So many great national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Joshua Tree, Saguaro, Sequoia, Redwoods, Shanandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Mammoth Cave, Grand Tetons, Petrified Forest, Lassen Volcanic, Mackinac Island, others already mentioned with Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon the crown jewels.

And always: my very favorite place: Maramec Spring Park, St. James, Missouri. I feel the sense of time and the presence of Indian spirit there. To me, it’s the greatest cathedral in the world. I love all the other south Missouri springs, too. Alley Springs comes in second. And I like Elephant Rocks and the Johnson Shut-Ins. And I loved seeing those again with the Schroeders!

Wind (a stiff breeze but not a gale) also gives me a sense of timelessness and forever.

Trees are the next thing to godliness, especially the Redwoods and Sequoia. The beauty of the fall trees in the New England states and also in south Missouri. I love God’s nature!

The yellow sunrise seen from the top of a Colorado mountain when I was young enough to get up early and climb there.

A TV program about buried treasure in Bedford County Virginia brings back memories of Fred and I going to the courthouse there to research for location and driving by a farm where Fred’s 1800’s ancestors probably lived before migrating westward to Missouri. Jamestown. Washington DC once with Bud and Kaye: White House, Capital Building, Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Smithsonian. Arlington National Cemetery changing of the guards. Kennedy eternal flame, etc.

All the RV trips to South Texas RV resorts. Stained glass and woodworking classes, cards, visiting performers, new friends, especially farmer friends Mel and Glema King of Nebraska (and RV travels with them) and Marion and Freeman Hoppe from Minesota. And other RV trips to the West Coast, Connecticut to see Amy, Nebraska and Wyoming, and the Appalachian and Blue Mountains.

And all the Bluegreen trips to South Missouri, Tennessee, Myrtle Beach, and Florida, culminating in The Villages.

Travel has enriched me greatly. It’s a storehouse, not just of knowledge, but the pleasure of memory. I didn’t make it to Africa to see Tanganyika and the Victorian Falls; and Covid and losing Fred has halted travel beyond making it back to Missouri more I hope. But maybe Ron and I will make it to Oak Island, and Carol and I to Mackinac Island.