SUCH A LOT OF WORLD TO SEE

I sometimes wonder if some of my blog posts are actually finished when I send them off into cyberspace. More than once I have asked myself if a second go-round is called for to make them complete.

That seemed to be the case when I revisited my last post……Two Drifters - off to see the world. In a matter of minutes my thoughts were overtaken by the next line of Johnny Mercer’s Moon River lyrics ……“There’s such a lot of world to see.” 

It was enough to have me remembering the world, or at least the parts of it, that Roma and I had experienced in the course of our sixty-seven years of ‘drifting’ together. I’m guessing you can relate to some of your own “seeing the world” possibilities.

Near as I can tell my “seeing the world” urges surfaced early. I was 14 when I talked a couple buddies into joining me to run away from home ……which at the time struck me as the ultimate adventure. 

We would hitch-hike east through the Columbia River gorge, where one of my pals talked me out of trying to swim across the mighty Columbia to hop one of the freight trains on the Washington side. More to the point, that youthful escapade would end in the Umatilla County jail, and a county-paid bus ride home.

By the end of our sophomore year in college Roma and I had been ‘going steady’ for a year. That had me offering a well-intentioned suggestion that the two of us spend our next summer back-packing in Europe. I had read of such adventures, and it would be a perfect fit for us……or so I thought.

Though I did not know it at the time, our future together would be rescued by Roma’s refusal to ask her mother for permission to be part of such a trip. As I got to know her better I realized that my steely-eyed mother-in-law to be, the lady our kids would know as Grandma Janet, would have put an immediate and final end to any relationship that hatched such impetuous, new-world notions.

In our years together there would be much to revel in, to be proud of. Our family, now three generations deep, tops that list. And not far behind are the things we accomplished together……creating some very special moments, including those times when, with Grandma Janet’s permission, we spread our wings to see some of the world. After all, like the song says…….”There is such a lot of world to see.”

Our “lot of world” travels together began in the rough and dusty wilds of Baja California, circa 1960. While more conventional folks were settling for a honeymoon in Hawaii, Southern California, or Niagara Falls, I had decided that La Paz, the southern terminus of the infamous Baja Road, would suit us better.

Where else could we have borrowed the bartender’s cab, which had to be hot-wired, because there was no key, to see the sights of town. Our hotel was the best in town……as you would expect for $25 per night. Sadly the pool had suffered an ugly algae bloom, so we settled for an afternoon at the neighborhood cock fights.

It would be a few years later, now with two young sons in tow, when Roma and I again set off to see more of our world……all the way to the rarified haunts of Palo Alto, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. There, while a bit overwhelmed in that population of bright and ambitious would-be tycoons, our small-town crew learned a bit about life in the fast lane. Though it was an interesting experience, we were not converted.

I can’t blame Stanford for what came next. A year later our family of four averaged nine miles an hour over five days spent driving the original Baja Road. I had ridden a motorcycle the length of that outback trail a few years before. Repeating the trek in a four-wheel drive pick up was a comfortable alternative.

Then in 1970, at the age of thirty-three I came face-to-face with a textbook mid-life crisis that would send our family of five off to see a very different part of the world. How about a 1,400 acre cattle and alfalfa ranch deep in the Oregon Outback? Though I still scratch my head just thinking about it, even Mancini and Mercer could not have imagined my long hours in the saddle, or Roma’s love of driving the bulky haying machine and tending day-old calves. Like the song says…… “There’s such a lot of world to see.”

Truth to tell, ranching was not in our blood. By the time the ranch was sold I was expected to return to the family business, ready to free my dad for his eagerly awaited retirement. Sadly, a year later I managed to again put those plans on hold…….while we “drifters”  went “off to see the world.” 

This time we went as far as Winchester, the ancient capital of England. For the next year, while my dad stewed back home, we saw more of the world……Great Britain, Ireland, and western Europe. In the process I did manage to complete a novel, my supposed reason for taking our crew, now numbering six, abroad. In reality it was a classic case of a spoiled son indulging himself so that he and his family could see the world. 

Returning to real life back in Oregon, Roma settled into becoming the mother our four children loved, needed, and remember. Meanwhile, I set about growing and expanding the family business……putting my Stanford learning to work in a small business universe. For all those family-rearing years our “seeing the world” centered on the kids and their activities, along with family-centered travels, including a return visit to Winchester.

When the time came to sell the family companies I would move on to a second career in public school business administration. Those “seeing the world” years included moves to southern and central Oregon. 

It was after our central Oregon days, and my subsequent retirement, that we indulged ourselves in extended travels through the eastern half of the US and one last European tour……twelve weeks spent driving back roads and walking the side streets of Paris, London, and Edinburgh.

When all is said and done for us “two drifters” the possibilities of “such a lot of world to see” was not simply a matter of the places we saw and experienced.  It was about the people we connected with, both at home with family and friends, and in the course of our travels.

Though it makes for a pleasant reverie……revisiting some of the places, events, and people we were able to experience in the course of our “drifting”……it was the folks we met along the way who provided the real treasure at the “rainbow’s end” that Mercer spoke of.

Here’s hoping that you too have learned, and are still learning, your own personal lessons about “such a lot of world to see.”