* * My folks love to travel!

Bahamas. Dominican Republic. Jamaica. Turks and Caicos. Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao. Barbados. Guadalupe.

I love to travel. St. Augustine said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” I’ve been to about 15 foreign countries and the next one I want to visit is the one I haven’t been to yet. In a moment, you’ll understand where that desire comes from.

The conversation happened the other night when my wife and I visited my parents at their house in Christiansburg right after they’d returned from a trip to Eastern Virginia. Dad, in his typical effusiveness, described a trip to Northampton County on the Eastern Shore, primarily to watch birdlife. “The barrier islands off the coast are absolutely beautiful and largely untouched.” Mom went to her hometown of Richmond, where she spent time with her sister and her childhood friend, “the only one of my five girlfriends who is still alive.”

Mom spent most of her life proclaiming she was 39 years old, only revising it when her eldest passed that milestone himself. She now is solidly in her eighties and happily admits – and appreciates – how vital she and dad remain.

Great Britain. Iceland. Norway. Sweden. Denmark. Greenland. Liechtenstein.

Mom got to running on about her childhood and her first travel experiences. In her formative years in Richmond, she got around by bus and streetcar; her parents never learned to drive. Her first trip by train was to Newark, New Jersey, to see some relatives and visit the New York World’s Fair in 1939, “a highlight!” she said. “We saw television at the first time at the Fair. Nobody except Amelia Earheart and barnstormers flew in those days. Rich people went to Europe, but by ship.” Her first flight was back from Raleigh, North Carolina, where as a teenager she deliberately missed her bus because she was interested in a boy. Mom as a degenerate: what an image!

Dad’s first flight was in 1952, with mom to Dad’s sister’s wedding. They flew from Roanoke to New York on a DC-3. By all reports, it was an awful flight.

Anyway, in spite of the enormous logistical challenges of putting a family of six on the road, I remember childhood car trips to the New York World’s Fair in 1964 and the Montreal World’s Fair in 1967. Dad grew up on Long Island, so we started making annual flights from Roanoke to La Guardia airport on old Piedmont Boeing 727 and 737 jets. Once the folks got us kids out of the house, traveling abroad became more frequent. Mom liked the cultural exploration and dad, always the naturalist, enjoyed the bird and animal life.

Italy. Spain. Israel. Morocco. Mexico. Canada. Switzerland. Austria.

When dad took up scuba diving, their travels truly kicked into high gear. They began visiting the world’s most fabulous underwater attractions, including the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea, Hawaii, and the Caribbean.

Mom has always been motion-adverse. “Even a porch swing makes me nauseous.” So her travels on cable-cars, small airplanes, and helicopters have been Dramamine-laced affairs. “The water was rough on the way to the Great Barrier Reef and it was miserable for me.” But she’s soldiered on! 

“At one point,” dad said, laughing deeply, “we had her walking on a knife-edge ridge in the Alps where the land dropped away on both sides hundreds of feet. I said to her, ‘Honey, do you see where you are?’ We did an abrupt about-face and made a hasty retreat!”

Together, we began listing and then counting the countries. Each of them has a special memory or two. Mom was enthralled by Israel, with its unparalleled religious history. Dad said, “Israelis live under a lot of stress every day, situated in the world’s roughest neighborhood surrounded by enemies.”

Dad really liked Iceland. “It’s a small country, but the landscape is fantastic. Because of the mild Gulf Stream climate and the thermal features, nobody has to pay for heating.”

Mom said, “Greenland isn’t green; it’s icy. The weather was awful! Late, late at night, the sun has set but it still stays light.”

Costa Rica. Australia. New Zealand. Cayman Islands.

Their list got to over thirty countries. Mom said, “When I was growing up, the scope and breadth of travel experiences I’ve had today was something I could never even dream about. It never entered my mind that I could ever do this.”

Will they add more? They’re going back to Bonaire in August. After that, “We’ll see what our health brings us,” Mom said.

Everyday Americans have travel opportunities that only kings and queens had 100 years ago. Following my parents’ lead, I hope to take advantage of them.