Blog #3
12/2/2020
Life Lessons from The Road Trip
It was a time when gas was less than $.20 cents a gallon. Well before cell phones were ever available for the masses. And…as I recall, men’s hair style was simple. For a youngster like me who desired a little bit of classiness, but a tinge of west coast surfer- the Mullet was a solution that has entertained for decades since. It was summer 1987.
Our parents sacrificed and saved for years so that they could take their young family on a cross country road trip. As it turned out, the trip overflowed with life lessons. Some of those lessons are still being learned today. The trip lasted for 6 weeks and covered just under 9k miles. We visited 25 states in our great country.
Recently our family had a chance to be together. Conversation drifted to reminiscence about the trip. And although it was more than 33 years ago, we all shared that seldom does a week go by where a story or thought about that journey is not shared. To say it was a once in a lifetime trip is an understatement…which made a comment shared by my mother even more apropos- she said ‘we had no idea that the trip would have been so impactful, we never expected that you would talk about it for years to come’.
These ideas stand out after all these years:
Ø Sacrifice and Save- Now with a family of my own, I marvel how my parents were able to afford and execute such a trip, let alone with three teenage kids.
Ø Experiences- In traveling that distance, in a two-toned Dodge Van (no AC) sleeping a family of 5 in a StarCraft Tent Trailer- you get to learn a few things. Amazingly, many of those experiences still ring true today.
Ø Perspective- how large the US is, and then how small it can be too. Imagine having driven almost 6,000 miles and connecting with a neighbor from back home…all coordinated without the luxury of modern technology (no cell phone, no GPS)…nothing but a simple note written on a paper plate left at the ranger station- “we are at the pool”.
Ø Life Lessons-
o Communication and Emotional Intelligence- 5 people together nearly nonstop for 6 weeks in a van and a trailer = a crash course in the arts of Emotional Intelligence. We learned how to read ourselves, the room, and carefully say what needed to be said.
o Determination and Perseverance- mechanical issues, weather, days and days of driving all be dammed. We learned how to knuckle down one mile at a time. They taught us the value of goal setting and helped us to develop the grit to execute on those goals.
o Geography- A person can get to feel quite small when you drive literally all day and see nothing but rolling hills and grassland. Our country is massive and filled with wonderful people. We learned about diversity, culture, scale and of course perspective, again.
o History- we learned all about NASA, Disney, US History, the Colonies, regional culinary delights, and got an important taste of reality from some of our country’s darker moments.
o Gratitude- we continue to learn to be thankful for the sacrifices our parents made, so that we could have a richer and fuller life.
Mom, Dad- you nailed it!