What’s the longest trip you’ve ever taken?
When we were kids, we would take the longest trip ever at least in our minds. Two or three times a year we would make the trek to spend time with my grandmother who lived on the opposite side of the world, or at least state.
Back then that is as far as my world went. It took us 9 hours at least. Some times we went on a greyhound, sometimes in my mother’s little Toyota Tercel and later in her Lincoln we named the tank. My step father also had a Chevy truck with a camper shell and we spent many trips on a mattress in the back. At Christmas time, we mostly slept and played with the toys we got that season.
As an adult, I have been on a few trips involving plane rides for work and for fun.
All my life, though I have wanted to cross an ocean. One that did not involve the Gulf of Mexico.
Not too long from now, I will finally get to do it. Cross the Atlantic and go on my own sort of Grand Tour, sleeping in castles and wondering the moors. Slipping and tripping over wet cobblestones streets. I wonder if I should start a tally of every time I trip.
It will involve pubs and libraries and book stores and creating even more of a longing within me. Remind me of how I always felt I was born in the wrong time and place.
Still hoping really for that connection that spans oceans and time. we will just have to see who finds me.
Lisa Gray 