My husband refused to fly in an airplane; he never had and refused to consider it. So our journeys were limited to discovering only those places that could be driven to. Since he was in the construction business and we lived in Ohio, our travels usually took place in the winter after all of the holidays had come and gone. We pretty much, over the course of our married life, drove all over the United States. We never made it to the state of California though, something else my husband seemed to be as afraid of as flying for some odd reason. We spent a lot of time in the south and Florida to escape the cold but we made a few trips out west as well; visiting Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, the Badlands, and countless other national parks and quirky places of interest. A couple of my favorite and most memorable places were in Colorado, the Great Sand Dunes located in Mosca, and St. Mary’s Glacier which is located in Idaho Springs and sadly, I hear, not much left of it these days. I also adored New Orleans which we visited pre-hurricane Katrina. There was something about it that was so different and unique from any place I had ever visited, I believe it left me with a deep desire and longing for more diverse, cultural experiences. In 2003 I finally took my first plane ride. My husband was in Florida at his usual winter vacation spot and I had stayed back home, our marriage was on its last leg and we decided to take some time apart. Some friends invited us to join them in Las Vegas, a place we had never visited, and in one last attempt to work things out we booked the trip and the airfare. I was beyond ecstatic and shocked that my husband was agreeing to board an airplane, and all by himself nonetheless as he would be flying out of Florida and I would be flying with our friends out of Ohio. I can’t say I remember a whole heck of a lot about that trip other than I sat in the middle seat on the plane between my friends to feel protected from the unknown, and it ended up not being scary at all and would be the start of my many flights to many locations around the world.
Grand Canyon - 1991