Grand Tetons

During our marriage counseling, we were told to separately write down 3 short terms goals that each of us had and 3 long term. I don't recall our short term goals besides finishing school for myself yet I do recall that our long term goals consisted of: a) Buying a house B) Restoring the Plymouth C) Traveling in the Plymouth. Although, I believe Traci might have written to work at a cupcake shop for her third answer. Regardless, making road trips in the Plymouth was something she had mentioned of accomplishing in the future. Either way, I was a bit surprised of how we both had similar long term goals. Three summers ago we had the opportunity to make a trip to the Grand Tetons in our 68 year old car.

We began by giving the Plymouth a free ride to Bozeman since Traci's folks had been gradually relocating the used car dealership as they slowly moved to Walla Walla. On one hand, Ben was excited to ride in the diesel truck but perhaps Joey was most likely confused at what kind of parents would take a 2 month baby on a road trip. I'm not sure Joey, I'm not sure. The first leg of the trip consisted of preparing ourselves to spend a weekend at Beaver Creek Campground. We took the grandparents camping trailer since it's been a running joke for years to bake a cake a quake lake... and bake a cake we did! It turned out to be quite a delicious carrot cake minus the carrots, so spice cake? Anyhow, the area around Earthquake lake is adorned with a blanket of wild flowers each spring and a great place to camp. There's generally a moose lurking near the campground and it's just exactly far away from the crowds of tourist at West Yellowstone.

One of Traci's desires for making this trip was to have her dad drive his 71 Duster. Despite being neighbors with the park, they had never driven the Duster into the park. We spent one night in the town of Gardiner just north of Yellowstone and spent 3 nights at Colter Bay Village. There we got to see the two sunsets over Jackson Lake, enjoy some short hikes and skip rocks to our hearts content. Another side perk is that we got to see the old barns and homestead around the park. We had to opportunity to celebrate my in laws's (how is that spelled?) 45th anniversary on our last day at the park. Coincidentally, 45 years ago they had also driven an orange duster through the Tetons on their short honeymoon trip towards Grand Junction, CO. We drove through Yellowstone on our trip back home via Madison Junction and saw a few Bison running the streets but Ben's eyes were glued shut despite our best efforts to wake him up. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to see Old Faithful just in time for mother earth to turn on the geyser valve.

Starting from the Grand Tetons, our trip took 4 days. We spent a night in Bozeman where I had to replace the water pump on the Plymouth. The following night was spent at Jellystone RV park in Missoula. Followed by a night at Liberty Lake and finally home. It's a 12 hour trip stretched into 4 days. Both Traci and I alternated driving the Plymouth and Duster to Walla Walla. I will admit that despite the Plymouth handling the trip like a champ, there is a level of comfort that must be sacrificed. Our trip over Homestake Pass was incredibly slow at a top speed of 30 mph. Air conditioning consists of cranking down the window like a caveman... ughh, manual labor. Nevertheless, we didn't buy the Plymouth for it's speed but for it's comfort. We might not have an AC, but rolling the window down and feeling the pockets of cold air as you drive through the mountains adds to the experience. On top of that, people our amazingly friendly when you drive in a vintage car. Our trip combined our excitement for National Parks and old cars. One day we will have to recreate the trip for the sake of the good ol' days... you know what? That sounds like a great idea.

Physics of Balancing

A couple weekends ago Joey began riding his bike during the University's spring break. We took advantage of the empty sidewalks since the students are gone and let him roam free. I'm excited for my little fella. It won't be long before we can go on bike rides together at campgrounds or better yet... Hiawatha, here we come! Seeing him mentally process the physics of balancing a bike reminded me of how kids force us to slow down from our busy lives. Balancing a bike is a enormous achievement and consequently I indulge in his excitement.

I often feel that filling a blog by just quoting someone else is extremely lazy. Yet as I walked alongside him I was reminded of a quote I heard back in my collegiate years.

The existence, the physical universe is basically playful. There is no necessity for it whatsoever. It isn’t going anywhere. That is to say, it doesn’t have some destination that it ought to arrive at. But that it is best understood by the analogy with music. Because music, as an art form is essentially playful. We say, “You play the piano” You don’t work the piano.

Why? Music differs from say, travel. When you travel you are trying to get somewhere. In music, though, one doesn’t make the end of the composition. The point of the composition. If that were so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest. And there would be composers who only wrote finales. People would go to a concert just to hear one crackling chord… Because that’s the end! Same way with dancing. You don’t aim at a particular spot in the room because that’s where you will arrive. The whole point of the dancing is the dance.

But we don’t see that as something brought by our education into our conduct. We have a system of schooling which gives a completely different impression. It’s all graded and what we do is put the child into the corridor of this grade system with a kind of, “Come on kitty, kitty.” And you go onto kindergarten and that’s a great thing because when you finish that you get into first grade. Then, “Come on” first grade leads to second grade and so on. And then you get out of grade school and you got high school. It’s revving up, the thing is coming, then you’re going to go to college… Then you’ve got graduate school, and when you’re through with graduate school you go out to join the world.

Then you get into some racket where you’re selling insurance. And they’ve got that quota to make, and you’re gonna make that. And all the time that thing is coming – It’s coming, it’s coming, that great thing. The success you’re working for. Then you wake up one day about 40 years old and you say, “My God, I’ve arrived. I’m there.” And you don’t feel very different from what you’ve always felt.

Look at the people who live to retire; to put those savings away. And then when they’re 65 they don’t have any energy left. They’re more or less impotent. And they go and rot in some, old peoples, senior citizens community. Because we simply cheated ourselves the whole way down the line.

If we thought of life by analogy with a journey, with a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at that end, and the thing was to get to that thing at that end... success, or whatever it is. Or maybe heaven after you’re dead.

But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing, and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.

I don't want to make anyone bias by mentioning who this quote comes from.