I was never one for road trips growing up. Having a weak stomach, long car rides were synonymous with nausea and listening to 94.7 KSSJ “smooth jazz” at the mercy of my dear mother, the driver. Maybe it was my impatience, the Kenny G, occasional whiffs of cow manure up and down the I-5, or a combination of them all, but I was always anxious to get where we were going, wanting nothing to do with the in between.
Since then, I’ve come to appreciate road trips. Not only for where we are going, but the in between. Amid our given surroundings and company, there is always something beautiful to be discovered. This is obvious in the spectacular and worth seeking out in the mundane.
At least that was true of our three thousand something mile trip from LA to Montana and back. With a loose agenda in mind, ice chest full of snacks, two cameras, a dozen Freakonomics episodes, season one of Serial, and The Chronicles of Narnia on tape, Tyler and I traveled through Zion National Park and Grand Teton National Park up to Yellowstone. Some highlights include hiking through The Narrows and up Angel’s Landing in Zion, sitting quietly by campfire in Montana, and seeing the craziest colors in the geothermal pools of Yellowstone.
Thinking back, though, some of the sweetest memories weren’t in destinations, but along the way: finding a sunny spot on high ground to eat lunch in the Virgin River, stumbling upon some bison at dusk in Grand Teton, chasing the sunset while it poured through Idaho, seeing a mama black bear and her two “cinnamon” cubs from a friendly enthusiast’s scope, and pioneering a moose jam in Yellowstone, just to name a few.
I wonder what I missed out on during those childhood car rides.
Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.
Numbers 21:4
