A Story Teller

One of my favorite childhood vacations was the year that Mom and Dad loaded Me, my three brothers and our luggage into the family station wagon and hit the road to go west.  We drove from Indiana to The Grand Canyon, and on to Albuquerque New Mexico followed by a day trip into Mexico City.  Of course this was long before you needed passports to drive out of Texas, and a time when the Arizona highways housed rattle snake pits at road side gas stations for the enjoyment and/or terror of children and adults.

We still tell the story of Kenneth, my youngest brother, being left at a gas station at the age of 5 somewhere in Missouri.  We recall the little boy from the Indian Reservation who let us take his picture with some old camera the family owned, and then charged us $1.00 for the privilege.  We quit taking pictures of the locals then.

We tell the story of the hot days with snow at night.  Stories of stopping at By-Ways to make sandwiches for the family with purchases from the grocery store in the last town.  We remember stopping at gas stations for bathroom breaks, and never again leaving anyone behind.

We tell of the time we stood by the Canyon on that hot summer day and knew that we were seeing something special.  We knew we were the lucky ones and time stood still as we looked at the amazing creation of Mother Nature.

A famous quote by Ibn Battuta, who traveled the world in the 1300's clarifies how travel affects us. In his words -   "Traveling - It will leave you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller"

I hope I always have a road to travel and a story to tell!