I had the radio turned on low in the
car as we drove through the rain this morning, as I usually do.
Today, though, I had it turned to an oldies station instead of
current hits, and I ended up belting out one of my favorite songs,
“Walking in Memphis”, while Kade listened quietly, and probably a
little confused, in the backseat. I don’t know why this song has
endured as one of my favorites; I've never been to Memphis, or
really anywhere discussed in the song, and I don’t harbor a secret
love for the Deep South.
For me, I think the song touches more
on travelling to unknown yet strangely familiar places, and the mixed
feelings that come with. I generally felt a stew of excitement,
tension, worry and a bit of a thrill when travelling and visiting new
places. I have only been inside the United States, where you see the
familiar fast food and street signs and cars. Yet each area of the
country is different, in accent, views, weather, radio stations, even
how you stop for gas. The tone of the song as much as the lyrics sums
up those emotions for me, that perfect balance between the excitement
of viewing a new place, and the tension of finding your way among the
unfamiliar. I haven’t been able to travel much since Kade was born,
at least not to any new places, except down to California, but there
I was surrounded by family and Corey was in charge of the itinerary,
so all I had to do was show up and keep track of a newly mobile
little blonde kid.
I didn't really
think how much I would miss travelling and that mix of emotions that
comes with it until I was stuck in an office job that as yet doesn't allow much of it, both in terms of work and budget. Every summer when
I was in school, including college, I traveled to a new place, either slightly new as in the case of trail crews I worked for and
summer jobs in college. I racked up a nice list of airports and
states visited, and managed to hit each time zone of the lower 48
states. I always packed too much, and was always that one person
awkwardly repacking luggage at the airport, or catching a nap at some
nameless rest stop in Maryland at 2am. For all the
travel I've done by car, plane, and train, it hasn't gotten much easier, and I haven’t gotten more streamlined (except when heading to an endurance ride without much food, a change of clothes, or a sleeping bag. I'm great at streamlining then Thank god endurance people are wonderful and have plenty of open arms).
I remember my closest brush with
becoming a sad local news story came while waiting for a flight out
of Newark, my first year away at college. A few of my friends were
driving from Vermont to Florida for spring break, and gave me a lift
to New Jersey for the cheap flight Corey had booked for me. The catch
was my friends dropped me off more than 12 hours before my flight,
and I was a broke college student so I couldn't get a hotel, nor
could I check in and pass security for another 9 hours. So I curled
up with my portable DVD player, blanket, pillow, and giant backpack
in front of the TSA agent’s break room. It had been a long week and
a longer day, so I ended up dozing in my little huddle, and I was
woken up by someone shaking my shoulder and trying to get me to help
find their puppy, that had leaped out of their car and was lost in
the airport. Even at 18 and barely awake, I realized this guy was
either an idiot or something much worse, because who wakes a sleeping
college student instead of asking TSA to find a lost puppy? I managed
to wake up enough to get him to go away and check to make sure I
still had my wallet and all my stuff, but I had largely forgotten the
incident because when I went to check in for my flight, I discovered
that Corey had booked my ticket for the wrong week and so I found
myself stranded at Newark at 4am, my parents three sleepy hours
behind me and sick, in the days before I had a cell phone.
So, while travel may be fraught with uncertainty, stress, bother and discomfort, it has a few perks along the way.
