I woke up at four this morning from a dream with a fully written post in my head. It was the strangest feeling. I've been sick in bed for a few days with various ailments,(I'm on the mend now!) and I imagine my brain just got bored and decided to do some writing all on its own. If it comes out nonsensical I'm going to blame it on feverish delusions...
I have had the good fortune of having grown up in gorgeous New England. Both of my parents really made an effort to get us out to the prettiest spots for camping and visiting. When I was really young we used to travel along the Kancamagus Highway I don't recall whether we would camp or not, as I was four or so, but the scenery is lodged in my memory.
Living in a rural area means driving a lot. We spent a lot of time together in the car so naturally this is where all important discussions took place. Now that I am a parent I see that it really is a pretty great parenting technique to load the kids in the car and just drive. This is an easy way a parent can figure what music a child is interested in, or introduce them to new types music. This is how I discovered the weekend programming on NPR. My favorites, I've been listening to my whole life. Prairie Home Companion,Selected Shorts or Cartalk. (the latter probably responsible for my love of cars)
Of course it's easy to listen to music, radio or talk with your kids at home, but its harder to carve out time specifically for doing these things with out distraction. In the car there is the feeling of doing something as you are driving somewhere...but you are together in a vacuum of sorts. Also, there is the nice feature of not having to make eye contact. This was especially important to me in my tween and teenage years as I was super sensitive and easily embarrassed!This was were all of our heart to heart talks happened.
We drove all over the place. My Dad took me camping at the Bay of Naples and we often went to Sebago Lake State Park. (which has now succumbed to a terrible amount of erosion from watercraft) My mother and stepfather took us all hiking and camping in Gulf Hagus at the Katadin Iron Works. My step father took me ice fishing in Northern Maine. I spent A LOT of time at the beach in the summers.
When I was about ten (I think) we took the last trip as a family of five with my mum, stepfather ,myself and my two teenage sisters. It was a challenging trip as we all were cramped into a small Jeep Cherokee for the duration of around 2000 miles. Overnights were in tents at campgrounds rain or shine. We drove from Maine to Montana (I think for the month of August)stopping at National Parks like Yellowstone and Glacier.
It was an amazingly beautiful trip. I remember being intensely affected by the changes in landscape and grandeur of the mountains. I think that by choosing vacations that were based in experiencing natural beauty, my parents gave us kids the early ability to appreciate the world outside ourselves. To realize that we were part of something bigger then the day to day worries that everyone experiences. To this day looking at the ocean waves, or a mountain range is a wonderful reality check for me. My parents gave us the gift of perspective with these trips.
In the course of the following year my mother and stepfather divorced, we lost Megan to a car wreck and my sister Nikki went to college. I will always be thankful for that time we spent together on that trip before everything changed. That trip gave us unedited, uninterrupted time together that I will never forget.
Traveling still continued after that, though it mostly consisted of trips down to Maryland to see Nikki in College. We mostly drove but once I took the train down by myself. That time I got to sit in on one of Nik's classes discussing Robert Frosts "Birches" I felt so cool.
Most of the remaining trips of my youth were solo, with friends or by airplane, usually to visit my or my husbands (then boyfriend) family.
Today's rushed and distracted style of traveling just doesn't seem to have the same depth of purpose as what I remember as a child. I want to really try avoiding that type of travel when possible.
We bought a pop up camper from some friends last fall ( she needs some work!) and I can not wait to get it up and running for the bluegrass and folk festivals in New England this summer. The kids aren't old enough for big hiking trips, but I think we could hit up some local campgrounds to get started. I want to give my kids the gift of perspective my parents gave me in experiencing natural landscapes. Most importantly the connections and open communications formed when spending uninterrupted time with family.
