On our annual fast weekend to Michigan to close the cabin, I was reminded of how much I love road trips with you. That route is full for us…mountain views in all seasons, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken, a heart attack, the historic canal at Piqua, traveling with varied permutations of grandchildren with potty training, swimming pools, Boonesboro, Bucee’s. Even on this familiar repeated I-75 trek, we made some new memories and rediscovered older ones we had not visited in a while.

On our road trips, we tell each other our story. You and I started out with Sunday afternoon road trips seeking time away from campus as we became a twosome. We remembered some of those first road trips…lunch in St. Johns, Lumberjack Park, cows out at your sister’s farm, supper with Grandpa and Aunt Nellie. We cherished for the thousandth time a winter road trip to Red Wing in the snow and eagles on the iced-over Mississippi during our newlywed grad school years. And all those trips back and forth from Minnesota to Michigan. We laughed about our traveling cat life, after the newest kitten gave up and stopped yowling. Not everyone has traveled with as many as four cats or carriers stacked between grands in the backseat. See, a new memory–Smokey’s first road trip.

 Road trips give us time to revisit our favorite adventures and trips we are glad we took…hot springs in Tuscany, a funicular in Quebec, the Alhambra. Along with the places, we recognized the themes of our life together, the values of faith, family, community, and our marriage. These repeat wherever we live .

And as can happen with road trip conversations, we inevitably ran into some of the challenges we have faced in our 58-year relationship. There were some hard times with fear and unknowns. The road trip gave us time to reconsider how we had coped and grown through those times. We realized that some of those scary emotions still can bubble-up but now they have names, and we can honor them and not get stuck. Perspective is a blessing; it is gaining it that can be a pain.

Thanks for the road trips, sweetheart. So very glad to make them with you.

Love, Sylvia