I met DH on a road trip near my hometown 36 years ago.
That meeting, where I heard Carole King singing I Feel the Earth Move in my ear, led to my accepting a Houston job four months later.
I worked at the local all-news station. Chuck led the newsroom at the cross-town country music station.
Competitors, we began dating.
Our first road trip took us to Galveston’s Flagship Hotel.
Our romance made Houston’s newspaper gossip columns. The bosses, gratefully, didn’t mind our courtship.
Thirty one years ago this week, we married and began traveling. I retired from radio, as DH later did. We began a crisis communications business that took us around the globe.
We overnighted in all 50 states plus 24 foreign countries and three continents. Those trips came many modes. On land, in air, and over water, here’s the (partial) exotic list:
- LAND: camel (Australia), funicular (Austria), Ice Explorer (Canada), dog sled (Alaska), horse-drawn carriage (New York), Segway (Colorado), pedicab (Illinois), moped (Bahamas), cable car (San Francisco), ice skating (Houston)
- AIR: canoe (New Zealand), international flight (Italy), prop jet (Denali), helicopter (Florida), hot air balloon (New Mexico)
- WATER: cruise ship (Mexico), glass-bottomed boat (Florida), catamaran (St. Thomas), tubing (Wyoming), ferry (Washington), riverboat (Louisiana),
But we haven’t traveled via these modes:
- Parasail, parachute, zipline, and any activity that might break a bone or blow a body gasket
Aging brings wisdom and we’ve both got hearts, brains, and other body parts to protect these days.
Other wisdom I’ve gained with the years is that both marriage and travel involve journeys of a type. If you can open yourself fully to the possibilities of each, you’ll eventually experience the good, the bad, the ugly, the weird, and more. It’s all Life.
For instance, this month for me marks not only a sweet anniversary but also what I call the beginning of my Lost Decade. Eleven family funerals and 20 hospitalizations/surgeries. One day, I’ll tell that tale, an heartbreaking/heart-expanding journey through (seemingly) unending disease, death; loss, grief.
But this week, I focus on a happy day and blessed memories. That’s a choice, something that awaits each of us.
Through it all, I also try to remember to lighten up.
DH and I keep this plaque in our house, reminding us that when life gets intense, laughter lightens the load.
On some days, it’s the laughing that gets us through.
That’s as true in marriage as it is Every Single Day.