Travels

I enjoy traveling.  I haven't done nearly as much of it as I'd have liked, but what traveling I've done has always been fulfilling. 

When we were younger, our journeys consisted of going to a neighboring state -- almost always the same neighboring state -- because there were seven of us and money was tight.  Compared with other families, our travels weren't very extensive.  I enjoyed what I saw, but I can't say I treasure the memories.  I don't recall seeing or doing anything of great interest. 

After I graduated college, my horizons expanded.  I went to Ireland with my aunt the lawyer and her brother, my uncle, the priest.  I joked that I had my bases covered in the event of a tragic accident, since I could get the last rights and have a holographic will done on the spot.  Since I had been conned by my uncle into driving when he asked if I'd ever driven a stick shift, which I had, I was driving in Ireland on the wrong side of the road in the other side of the car, manuevering the stick with my left hand.  Now that was an experience to remember.

The next year, after my first year in graduate school, I moved to Spain.  The requirements for my master's degree included defending, in Spanish, a reading list that included all the great works of Spanish literature.  Since I'd never been to a Spanish-speaking country, my spoken Spanish was about what you'd expect.  Knowing that in two years I'd have to defend my written exams and the reading list before four professors, I got the information I needed and boarded a plane to Madrid, where I lived for nearly a year.  During my stay, I spent a weekend in Portugal and crossed the border into France for a few hours to get my visa updated -- my, how things have changed...-- and visited virtually every part of Spain.  I not only learned to speak Spanish but I fell in love with the country. 

While I was in Spain, someone told me that a fundamental difference between our two countries was that in the States, we lived to work, whereas in Spain, they worked to live.  That hit me like a thunderbolt.  Having been imbued with the Protestant work ethic despite my Catholic upbringing, I never considered this perspective. 

Since then, I've returned to Spain once and spent a rather unfulfilling fortnight in Italy.  Even so, the experiences broadened my knowledge of the world and allowed me to see things again and for the first time.  Part of the reason I enjoy The Amazing Race (a show Karen contends has jumped the shark) is that it affords me the opportunity to see places I will never visit.

Since my last international trip, I've been to parts of this country that were hitherto unknown to me.  I've visited Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida.  I've driven farther than I've ever driven in a year, putting to rest the rumors that I was the inspiration for Jessica Tandy's Miss Daisy character.  Although I've been to Dublin, Madrid and Rome, I still haven't been to Washington, D.C., something I hope to rectify with Karen soon.

Florida was nice, but not exactly my favorite.  I appreciate the turn of the seasons, different temperatures.  I don't know that I could get used to one or two climes every year.

Kentucky, though, impressed me beyond belief.  It's simplicity of life, it's natural beauty and the utter kindness of its people harkens back to an earlier, more pure time.  I could live there quite happily with my sassy country girl.  Perhaps we'll end up there in our later years.  For now, at least three times a year, it provides my heart with hope and tidings of good times.

(c) 2012 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles