Traveling Man
I got a late night text from my son this weekend. He told me he'd really like to get together soon and asked if I'd consider a trip to Austin, TX where he lives. When Wonder Woman woke up the next morning, I told her my thoughts on dates and it turns out she can't make the trip with me because of a race she's in, but she jumped online and had my tickets purchased before I could finish my coffee. This will be my first solo trip in about 15 years and despite the horror show that airline travel has become, I'm looking forward to a weekend in the Texas heat, eating good Tex-Mex and hanging out with my favorite guy and hopefully my 19-year-old grandson on top of that.
Since we walked across fourteen states on our honeymoon, Wonder Woman and I have done a fair bit of traveling. Aside from several trips to Texas to see family we've been to Santa Fe, Colorado Springs, New York City, Marin County California and Northern Ireland. Those are just the places that required air travel. We've been up and own the East Coast by car for races, photography trips and other fun projects.
During the first years of the Iraq War I pretty much dedicated my life to trying to stop it. My son was in the Navy then and was a known anti-war resister. I was a member of Military Family Speak Out and the national Bring Them Home Now coalition. All of my spare time was spent organizing against the war. I've never in my life sent so many emails and made so many phone calls. I went all over the country speaking to young people and military families: Atlanta, Washington D.C., St. Louis, Cincinnati, Burlington Vt, Rochester, NY, NYC, and Chicago. I went to a political conference in Paris and visited with military families in Italy, England and Scotland. I met a lot of wonderful, dedicated activists and got my first taste of internationalism.
When Obama was elected, it killed the antiwar movement. Unfortunately, it took him three years before he pulled the troops from Iraq and of course we kept them in Afghanistan until just a couple of years ago. I was burned out by 2008 anyway. Working a full time job and traveling every spare minute were hard to reconcile. I needed to reprioritize some important aspects of my life and I did. For the next few years I stayed pretty close to home and it paid off in different ways.
I'm not sure what my future travel plans will be. Wonder Woman is going to run the tour de Mt. Blanc in the Alps next summer but I'm staying home for that one. We've talked about traveling to Australia and New Zealand for a joint retirement trip. She lived in Hawaii as a child and would like to show me that paradise one day. We have family in some of the most beautiful parts of Alaska and California that we don't see often, so those places are always a possibility.
I do love to explore though and I think some of the well traveled people I've met on the IndyWeb, like Alexandra Wolfe and R. Scott Jones are endlessly fascinating. If any of you are ever making your way up and down the east coast, I live about 15 minutes off of Interstate 95 and I'll gladly meet you for a cup of coffee should you decide to take a pit stop here in Eastern, NC.
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