When I was seventeen and ready to leave home for good, I had no idea what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be, or where I wanted to go. All I knew for sure was that I didn't want to be there... in that little ''ville. I had dreams - the urge to travel - to see the world.
Which is probably what enticed me to enlist in the U.S. Navy at that early age. Their advertising slogan "Join the Navy and See the World" offered me everything I wanted: to ride on a real bus, a seat on a train, to fly on a plane!
Little did I realize how quickly those dreams would be fulfilled when I had to ride a bus to the airport, fly to Chicago, and catch a train to the Naval Training Center at Great Lakes - all within the first twelve hours after leaving.
What does one do when their entire portfolio of dreams is completed at such an early stage? Why... expand it, of course. Ironically, the Navy didn't provide me the keys to see the world. While it did show me Memphis, Tennessee and all of southern California, it was left up to me to choose a career that permitted the travel I wanted. I chose wisely.
Joining the ranks of Field Service Representatives for a major defense contractor, I suddenly found myself right back in the U.S. Navy - as a civilian on board an aircraft carrier. I spend the first year with my new company away from home; in Australia... in Singapore... in Japan... in the Philippines... in Korea... in Iran... in New Zealand... in Pakistan... at sea.
My travel experience continued to expand with each passing year. I wondered at the fjords in Norway, the plains of Spain and Turkey, the geysers and cleanliness of Iceland, the Castles of Wales, the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, and the rugged beauty of Victoria in western Canada.
I believe travel is an experience to be shared. While it might be exciting to follow the footsteps of you ancestors while in Scotland, it's even more so when you see the excitement in the faces of your children when they discover something new. My 19 year old son still speaks of a different world discovered when, at age 12, he walked out of the hotel in Paddington near downtown London to rush across the street to the small produce stand to buy fresh strawberries for his mother's breakfast. That world was alive with people, taxi's, double-decker buses, and people. Quite different than walking out of his house in suburbia - where he never even saw his neighbor except for perhaps an occasional trip to the mailbox at the curb.
My son has scuba'd the Great Barrier reef and the Blue Hole in Belize; drifted over wrecks in Cozumel; and touched bottom at 101 feet. He's asked for 'another cruise - this time alone' as his college graduation gift. He has spent more time with me in Chicago since leaving home for college than he has at home. He is, it seems, a chip off the old traveling block.
My wife has the same travel bug. My job continues to take me away from home about fifty per cent of the time... and at every opportunity she and the family dog join along. During every visit - in practically every state - she makes the same request... "Can we sell the house and move here? Please?" This past year we have spent over six months in Schaumburg, Illinois. She has found a shopping paradise - albeit one with a hefty sales tax.
But of all the places we've been, there always seems to be that one place that feels exactly right. Just like home. You know it the instant you get out of the airport. Palm Trees. Water. Ocean. Each of us in my family recognize that the ocean is where we like to be. We all loved Tucson - the desert beautiful in it's own right. We enjoy Santa Barbara - the lifestyle Bohemian at it best. We like Fort Worth - a very small big city. And yes, I still have a soft spot in my heart for Kentucky - home. It gets easier every time to pack up and go visit the old homestead. My son is in college there. Maybe someday we'll even live there again.
And we once spend a month near Grayton Beach in the Florida panhandle. And that is the place we all agree that has us wanting to return more often. The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico call to me. My wife likes the beach. My son... well, he just likes anyplace... as long as it isn't at home...
The view from the front lawn ... needs a little water…
