Locations. Trips and vacations. Experiences. Homes. Activities. Even vehicles. Memories are buried in these and other words. What would life be without memories?
One of my son’s friends asked him one day: “how did you convince your dad to take a motorcycle trip with you?” I wasn’t there, but I think the rest of the conversation might have gone something like this:
“Well, my dad asked me what I’d like to do to celebrate graduating from high school and I told him I hadn’t thought much about it. Then he said: “Well, how would you like to take a motorcycle trip? We could start at Astoria, Oregon go South down the coastal highway to Mexico and back?”
“It was your dad’s idea?! He wanted to take a motorcycle trip…a 4,000 mile long motorcycle trip?!”
The idea for an extended trip after high school graduation came from an offer made to me and a friend by his father when we graduated from High School. With every confidence that we could take care of ourselves, he told us he would provide us with a car and $100.00 cash if we would be gone for the summer. We could go anywhere we wanted. Where was not very important. The lesson he wanted us to learn was to discover how much we could “blow” on fun stuff and have something left for food and gas. The commitment he asked us to make was that when we ran out of money we would stop and find work. When we earned enough to move on, we could again go anywhere we wanted. He told us that if we gave it our best and could not find work we could call and he would help us get home in defeat.
I have always regretted (in an unimportant but nagging way) that we did not take advantage of the opportunity.
We missed the opportunity because we thought we had more important things to do to prepare for our futures. As Chris approached graduation I am glad I did not allow the second time for a post high school memory builder to pass without taking advantage of it because I thought there were more important things to do.
After Chris (and his mother, reluctantly) agreed we began planning “the trip.” During our adventure I kept a journal, though not extensive, recording where and how far we traveled in a day and sometimes describing an experience which was out of the ordinary. When the journal surfaced while cleaning out files, I began to relive that experience and found myself wanting to share it. I thought that by telling what happened between my son and me on that cycle trip, things that I believe are permitting us to enjoy each other as adults, I could encourage other dads on the parenthood path. I am extremely grateful to have a connection with my adult children that is enjoyable, pleasant, fun, fulfilling, and helpful to me, and to them. I believe I am now reaping a harvest from the relationship we had as they were growing up, not the least of which was the 4000 mile motorcycle trip my son and I experienced together.
A memory was created and I go back to the time often.
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