Traveling with Grace

I wish I could be one of those people that can travel gracefully. I really do wish that I could take a trip and not be a nervous wreck, disheveled, frazzled, and within an inch of committing a serious offense. Alas, I am not. Every trip that I take, I try to plan ahead, pack ahead, and try to be relaxed, but I am never able to achieve anything close to Zen… and mostly it is like a traveling side show anytime that I take a trip.

We’ve traveled a lot over the years, I have myself traveled so many miles that I will not try to count, my son is racking up the mileage now. We’ve been halfway around the world and back, and I still haven’t learned how to pack.  I know most of my problem is that I live in the desert. Yes, you will say that is stupid and no reason to be disorganized, but really, when you live in the desert, you don’t wear a lot of clothes, with exception of Winter time and then you just layer… sometimes I don’t change my wardrobe other than adding a jacket… You know, I wear shorts and flipflops with a sweater or tank top and jacket. Doesn’t everybody do that?

One just can’t be prepared if you live in the desert. I don’t own Spring or Fall clothing. It is either hot or cold and there is nothing in between. I lie… We had two weeks of Spring this year. That is about a week and a half more than normal. Fall is the same. So, if you don’t have the season, you don’t have the clothes to fit these… so called seasons.  When I travel to another region, there is always the question of how cold will it be. How hot is a moot point, either you wear a bathing suit or you are burning in Hell… there’s not much difference in any hot region. I suppose there is the dry hot and the wet hot… the wet hot is just more miserable mainly due to those pesky mosquitoes. I have to say, the only reason I live in the desert is because I don’t like mosquitoes, and you don’t get many in the middle of an arid zone.

So…

When I travel, my main concern is the cold. I learned this at a young age. My family traveled a lot, and usually it was to hot places, one year we went to Holy Ghost (I kid you not), New Mexico. We camped out at this beautiful area, massive pine trees, mountains, babbling brook… it was gloriously beautiful, and treacherous. The first night we were there… I believe it was our only night there… my father and uncle slept in a little A frame shed type structure, the women… Mom, my aunt, sister and I slept in the tent. I am not sure, since I was so young, but I think the guys slept in the A frame because we had pork-n-beans for dinner. I can’t say for sure, but in my experience, men tend to need to sleep elsewhere after beans for dinner. Well, the night got off to a wild start. There was a skunk that moseyed into the A frame with the guys, so it ended up we were all together in the one tent. Then it started raining. The thunder was deafening, reverberating off the high cliffs and echoing to what sounded like the coming of the Lord. That really wasn’t that bad, other than the wind was also blowing, nearly swamping the tent. Me and my sister both put our hands up to the tent to hold it up, allowing our skin oil to cause the tent to weep something fierce. OK, you know, that was kind of bad. It was getting pretty cold and I was shivering and my bed was wet, literally soggy from the rain dripping in. That wasn’t so bad, I mean, I snuggled up to my mom and it would have been OK, but it started sleeting… then snowing. This was in early August and we had come a long way in shorts, flip flops (OK, sandals) and short sleeved tops. Needless to say, Mom hadn’t packed warm clothes at all, we were freezing fast, but you know, it was so cozy with all of us sleeping in one tent… half of it wet by now… oh gee, it was bad.

That was when I learned that you pack for all kinds of weather. We were lucky, we drove to some town, I don’t remember, but I think it was Santa Fe, and bought what was my first pair of jeans and a plaid, flannel shirt. It was heaven. That shirt was so warm, and I had never worn jeans before. I was so thrilled to have them, and my legs were for the first time, warm! I remember to this day how cold it was that night at Holy Ghost. We can laugh about it now, but it was not very fun back then. Every time we go anywhere, that night pops into my head.

…to be continued.