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April 25, 2019

Travel Connects to The Past, Present, and Future

Black Arizona landforms against a vibrant, flaming sunset

Travel connects us, not only to people in present day, but all thorugout time. I realized this while road tripping in 2016. On my quest to complete my “All 50 States” tour, I pulled over along a desolate highway. The sunset views against Arizona’s Painted Desert deserved so much more than a passing glance as I drove through. I got out of my car and stood amidst absolute, complete silence and watched nature take place.

I’d never seen anything like it. Iridescence cascaded from the heavens into earth like a visual coloratura across the sky. The creator painted momentary murals on rock formations. Fallen, petrified trees from the late Triassic period, — 225 million years ago —- interspersed throughout the barren landscapes soon gave way to majestic silhouettes accented by stars that seemed to applaud the performance.

There I stood. This little country girl a long way from home, standing somewhere between, “the bright blessed day and dark sacred night” that inspired Armstrong’s rejoicing in, “What a Wonderful World.”

Wonderful world, indeed.

God was just showing off.

At that moment, a long-buried movie quote rose to the surface of my mind:

“In the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped, and Earth began. It was so beautiful.”

I finally understood. When I watched that movie back in 1995 and all the dozens of times since I liked the quote. I grasped the concept. But for the first time, while standing next to my hoopty, all alone in a desolate desert… I understood. I too struggled to distinguish Heaven from Earth.

Engulfed in awe of this masterpiece, my heart overflowed with gratitude that the composer saw fit to share this moment with me. Surrounded by both vast nothingness and the density of significance at once, all the people I love came to mind. I wanted them to have a moment like this. I wished my loved ones could witness a moment like this. I craved for everyone to feel all of this. And perhaps they had.

As I edit this post six years after original publication, I recall the same scene, when Jenny tells Forrest that she wishes she could have been there with him. He responds, “You were.”

Just like Forrest, in the most beautiful moments of life, my heart and mind go to those I love; they are with me.

And maybe that’s a phenomenon of travelers. Of observers. Of dreamers or artists. When surrounded by beauty we are connected by generations of love. Travel connects us to other travelers. Travel connects us to ideas. To dreams. And to beauty.

desert sunrise with beautiful artistic hues of pinks, purples, and blues. — *I hope everyone get to know how these colors feel in their lifetime.*

Historian Perspective

As a historian, I view the world through a historical lens. Whereas an engineer may look at something and ask how? I ask why and look for clues left by previous generations to learn the story. I travel to cover as much ground as possible. So I intentionally increase the probability that I trace the steps of my predecessors. I try to have many unique experiences so when others experience the same, it bridges a gap of understanding in a way that couldn’t be explained by words and pictures.

For example, I grew up in a military family. Saturday mornings often started with a G.I. Party (the military community knows this is not an exciting event). Getting ready for school came with the expectation that it only takes three minutes to run “The Three S’s” (sh!t shower and, shave). After 22 years growing up in that environment, it wasn’t until I experienced military training I learned for myself. It is indeed possible to get ready in three minutes (which is 90 seconds more than what’s actually needed).

That experience helps me relate to every warfighter in every land — froom every timeperiod. It helped me understand and connect my veteran parents, grandfathers, uncles, cousins in a way that I didn’t before. I could empathize with soldiers embracing the suck in Brandywine. I had more data to consider the thoughts and emotions of officers battling their former West Point classmates. Because of my experiences, I recognize the same mentality of young soldiers defacing markers in Colonial Park Cemetery, Savannah. Shared experiences, especially those like travel, connect us to those past and present.

Travel Is a Vehical to Connects Us To The Past

Travel is one of the experiences that increase connection. Visiting Charleston filled me with an enormous sense of connection to the past. Although I don’t know for sure, the statistics make it highly probable that someone from my family’s heritage walked the same cobblestone streets centuries before. Living in Boston gave me insight on why as a young graduate student, Martin Luther King lived in Roxbury, so far from Boston University. And why many Black students and young professionals make the same choice today).

Visiting the homes and frequented localities of those from the past gives a snapshot of the surroundings, how they lived, and what influenced their thoughts. It helps to understand how they worked through some of their decisions and thought processes. Even after reading Little Women multiple times and watching both versions of the movie, it wasn’t until I visited the March family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Mass, that I felt that I really got to know the family and understood the context of their lives.

Tracing the steps of James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Lois Mailou Jones in Paris’ Latin Quarter helped me to understand their muses. I know, from visiting the Kennedy Library, that Jacqueline took a cruise to Paris with friends during college. It was the best year of her life. And I can only imagine why based on my trips abroad in college, my trips to Paris, and the best year of my life which happened while abroad in Latin America.

Travel Connects to the Future

I don’t know details of travel or frequented localities for most of my family. I’d like to able to know and connect with my family in the same way I do with historical or fictional figures; but so much of my family’s history went undocumented.

Today, I do have some say over the breadcrumbs I leave for my future family. I can be intentional about the paths I leave behind. I can travel to search out a diversity of experiences. That way I can find some commonality with people I encounter today and yesteryear. But also in the future.

So, I travel. I do things. I leave clues for those to come. Perhaps, when my progeny find themselves randomly out in the middle of the desert, witnessing nature in all its glory, and they’re longing for someone to share it with, they’ll know they had an adventurous grandma/auntie who went everywhere and saw everything and felt the same way. Travel connects us to people — past present and futre.

Other stories on how Travel Connects us, check out these stories:

5 Reasons to Love Multi-Generational Travel • GloBelle Affairs

Renee McKenzie

Weekend Of Canyoneering

I got a taste of the southern Utah and had to go back! With This BuzzFeed article as my inspiration, I decided to get active for my Memorial Day. I plotted my course to see it all in 4 days:

Grand Canyon National park
Antelope Canyon
Horseshoe Bend
Bryce Canyon National Park
Zion National park

I spent Friday night after work in Vegas where my co-worker was having an epic co-ed bachelor/bachelorette party in Vegas. I learned that I am much to old to be trying to keep up with recent college grads. It was a Friday night, I’d put in a full week’s worth of work and just drove three hours. I was ready to chill. they were ready to wild out. Standing in long lines while my stilettos pained my feet was not of interest to me tonight. I was also training for a fitness competition and couldn’t consume alcohol or carbs. So I kept it low-key, and turned in relatively early for a night in Las Vegas. I started my day as everyone else was going to bed and continued my journey. I had national parks to see!

See more Lake Havasu photo here

The same co-worker, a recent college grad, once spoke enthusiastically about wanting to have Spring Break party trips to Lake Havasu. I’d never heard of the place. Being a southern girl my initial thoughts were why would you go to a lake in the middle of the desert to spring break on a lake when there’s Panama City Beach, Destin, Myrtle Beach, or Hilton Head? But apparently for West Coast Kids, Lake Havasu is the place to spend a week-long break from school. Well, I passed the lake on my way to the grand Canyon. I was traveling solo and this wasn’t on the itinerary but after watching groups of friends zip around on jet skis I could certainly envision spring break memories here. Why on Earth was I just now being introduced to this desert paradise?

Grand Canyon.
About six hours later I finally made it to the Canyon of Canyons! Have you ever been to a place that reminds you of a song? Well, The whole time John Michael Montgomery’s “Ain’t Got Nuthin on Us” played in my mind as the sound track of this adventure.

Yes, the Grand Canyon was a sight to see. But I’d already seen Zion Canyon and quite frankly, although smaller, I found it more beautiful. That could also be partly to the low visibility and drizzly conditions I found the Grand Canyon. It was chilly and wet and smelled like donkey doo the whole walk.

Going all the way down to the bottom of the Canyon is a 20-mile, round trip and requires overnight camping, training, and planning. I did an 8 hour round-trip walk down the canyon using the Angel Trail. Clearly, this is an all day adventure. I think anyone with a strategy can handle the trip but it is strenuous even for the physically fit. You need to be well-researched and prepared. On this hike you are battling altitude, the elements, hunger (no vending machines on the trail) dehydration, and boredom! So hike smart. The trip down is faster than the trip up (of course) but be sure if you are planning an 8 hour trip you account for breaks and the harder journey back up. This is not a four hours down four hours back up kind of trip. It’s more like three hours down, five hours up.

The views were awe inspiring. I was just surrounded by greatness.


The views were captivating

And very serene and peaceful

After this eventful, physically straining, long day, I hoped in my car and continued the ride toward Horseshoe bend. It was pretty late once I made it to Page, AZ. Prior to leaving a did a google search for hotels here and not a darn one showed vacancies. Not being one to let a little detail like lodging derail my adventure I came anyway to try my luck at cancellations. I did some calling around (thank goodness for a smart phone) to no avail. I asked the lady at the gas station for names of near-by cities with hotels. she said, this was it. There was nothing between flag staff and Zion but Page, AZ. But she directed me to with Wal-Mart parking lot. She said everyone keep coming in and asking for advice on lodging options but the town is small and there just aren’t hotels. But they were building more to accommodate the tourist flow. But the Wal-Mart just across the street seemed ot be the overflow favorite. Sure enough, midnight in Wal-Mart was poppin’ with everyone there buying pillows, blankets, and all that other good stuff. So, I did the same. The back parking lot was a makeshift camp ground. Actual RV camping vehicles were interspersed with cars and trucks lodging tourists like me. Being 4 foot, 4 1/4 inches tall does have its benefits. I found the backseat of my sedan comfortable and it wasn’t long before I was knocked out. It rained that night.

I woke up like this! In the back seat of my Japanese car.

I woke up to a nearly empty parking lot at dawn’s first light. Droves of Wal-Mart campers were making the trek across the parking lot, toiletry bag in hand, inside the super store to use the restroom. It was quite the sight to see. Everyone brushing their teeth and straightening up in the public bathroom.

Horseshoe Bend

I made it to Horseshoe bend down the street from the Wal-mart before 6 am and before all the crowds. Entrance to this natural wonder is free. It’s a walk up a steep hill plus a bout 3/4 of a mile walk to the bend. It’s quiet and peaceful on the Colorado River in the morning. Plenty of time and space to take pictures. It also has the potential to be very dangerous as there are no natural fall prevention features so if you’re with children, stay vigilant.

Antelope Canyon

Now the cool part of Antelope Canyon is Navajo Nation Park. Not a U.S. National park. So your annual park pass will not get you access. You’ll have to pay separately and plan ahead (four months) and get a reservation to see the cool sights like the wave. With your National Park pass you still get to see the gorgeous northern Arizona/Southern Utah views.

This is the cool part. You can learn more at discoverAmerica.com and more info at http://utah.com/the-wave

Other gorgeous views of The Utah-Arizona boarder!

I took a boat ride through the Northern part of Antelope Canyon. The boat tours offered an introduction to all the Navajo history you never learned in school. The Navajos here had a successful resistance against the U.S. Army who was sent on a mission to round up all the American in the area. The Navajos had to be invisible. That meant, no noise, no fires, no cooking. Many of them camped out right at the top of ridges like the ones in the pictures while the army cruised the Colorado River by boat.

Now, I will admit, I am not a Native American History guru by any means. All I ever learned in school was there was this Indian removal act of 1830 then The Trail of Tears. Then Indians went practically extinct, the end. It was really sad but a necessary evil for Manifest Destiny. Cus “Murica! That was high school. Even as a history major in undergrad, I was able to graduate without the acknowledgment of American Indians. In my graduate work, one of my cross-cultural professors was a blue-eyed, pale-skin Indian. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian was part of our reading list.

Although the views were beautiful on their own, photo editing works wonders.

There is an amazing stories of resilience and warrior spirit that is at the very heart of all that it means to be American in Native American history, and I find it a shame that it isn’t taught more in our schools. Even with the resistance a majority of Navajos still were captured and had to endure 13 miles a day at gunpoint during the event termed as “The Long Walk.” It’s a collective, historical trauma that unites Navajos with a common history as well as connect the Navajo’s Long walk with the Trail of Tears of the Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Muskogee.

The whole region is just a collection of interesting, natural beauty to see. I took the opportunity for an improve photoshoot in sandstone. I had visions of a high fashion photo shoot of models voguing on the sandstone in stilettos with wind blowing their impractical flowy gowns with striking, peacockesque make-up. But, since I don’t have the skill or resources, I got me, barefoot in a tee shirt and Capri pants.

Since I got up at the crack of dawn, I packed a lot in. I’d been on a boat cruise, seen the hanging garden (a little bit of a letdown…it’s just leaves growing on a rock wall), went on walks, splashed by the river. By noon, I’d seen and done all the highlights of the area. I took some time to rest and relax. do a little reflection, writing, reading, and picnicking.

After lunch, I revisited horseshoe bend under different lighting (and a higher tourist population). I started wrapping up to get on the road and travel onward before I got too tired and the roads got dark. The weather changed quickly. In fact, in the span of the day, it went from cold enough to sear long sleeves and a vest to sweating in short sleeves, then it poured down rain out of nowhere, to cold again.

After the rain on the way out of Arizona and into Utah.

I think I look a bit off here, but hey, I camped in the backseat of m y car.

Bryce Canyon

I continued the journey north, skipping Zion Canyon and heading straight to Bryce Canyon. I saved money on lodging in favor of camping out in my car again int he national park. That way, I’d skip the line and be able to start my day in the park.

Just an hour north

Bryce Canyon distinguishes itself from the others with it’s natural amphitheaters and hoodoos which I never learned about during geography class. I mean, I remember mesas, plateaus, mountains, and what not but hoodoo was a new one for me. But they are quite interesting to see. The temperature was significantly cooler as I hiked in higher altitudes.

I love Bryce Canyon because it is so distinctively different from the other four nearby canyons nearby and yet equal in beauty and charm. That’s similar to the discovery I made while living in Germany. In Germany, perfect blue skies are hard to come by. You learn to embrace the grey skies just as the blue and realize that beautiful days come during the rain, fog, and snow as well. Just like people. It seems like with the relatively new, American body positivity movement that America has had the epiphany that beauty can exist in different, even contrasting forms. You can have a group of women with different skin colors, hair lengths and textures, body shapes and sizes and all of them still be beautiful just like land forms. We are surrounded by beauty regardless if we are in canyons or suburbia or the big city whether or not we chose to see the beauty is up to us as individuals. It doesn’t have to be a competition. It’s okay to love all the canyons equally for different reasons. The Grand Canyon is humbling with it’s massive size and reminds me of that there are forces greater than one’s self out there. The same force that carved the canyon also designed the wonder of horseshoe bend. The history of Antelope Canyons is a reminder of strength and resilience.

I topped off my canyoneering weekend with a trip to Zion. Since I’d already spent some time here, I could relax more than explore. I took the opportunity to stretch out my muscles after sleeping in my car and taking on some hard hikes, I really needed a massage but stretch helped too.

It was an exhausting, physically challenging long weekend. I got comfortable sleeping without fancy accommodations, learned to appreciate and recognize beauty in differences more, had my breath taken away by the Grand Canyon, and did some killer hiking, climbing and overall canyoneering.

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