A Tribute to Two Travelers

As long as I can remember, my grandparents were telling me stories about their travels. They traveled extensively within the US and in the 1980s and 1990s extensively abroad, eventually going to all of the continents except Antarctica. While on their trips they bought rugs, baskets, fabric, jewelry and other handicrafts that were unique to their destination city. Each souvenir had a story and each time we went to the house in Frankenmuth we would hear one, "When we were in Egypt we..." "The time we went to Russia..." "I remember that I wanted to try bungee jumping when we went to Australia, but..."

As I got older, I would learn about the trips before they went instead of after. Before heading to Greece my grandmother asked me what souvenir I wanted. The movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" had recently come out and I told her, "Bring me back a handsome Greek man!" She smiled, but a couple months later when I saw her she presented me with a small statue of a handsome Greek man in traditional Greek clothes. We laughed and laughed.

When they traveled they most often took bus tours and the people that they traveled with became part of the story. "The Sari Group" was the people they traveled India with and one of the members was very good friends with two up and comers in the world of politics at the time named Bill and Hillary Clinton. For many years after the trip the sari group rejoined from corners of the United States to tell of more stories and tell of more travels.

My grandma always had good packing advice when I started traveling abroad. Her list of necessities always included a roll of toilet paper and a roll of duct tape. She told me that you could fix anything with duct tape and the TP normally came in handy somewhere. Another tip was to take your oldest underwear on the trip and then after wearing it, throw it away so you had more room in your luggage for souvenirs. Makes sense right?

My grandparents traveled to China in the mid80s. Since then my grandmother has always said, "China is the future." So few foreigners were in China at that time that their group was the center of attention where ever they went. There was one woman with long red hair and whenever she sat down on a bench or at a restaurant people would form a circle around her to stare and touch her hair. I remember a story about my grandfather eating an entire bird that was presented to him at a banquet (bones and all) because that was how to eat it. Another one was that they went to a high school auditorium to see school children do a performance. The gym smelled strongly of paint and when they left they realized that the walls had been freshly painted only minutes before they came so that everything would be neat and clean for the foreigners. A lot has changed since then, but I still get stared at occasionally, even in Shanghai, and as you know from my blog, eating interesting things remains possible.

Last week, both of my grandparents went on their last trip. My grandfather passed away on April 27th and my grandmother passed away on May 1st. My grandmother was a huge fan of my blog and would clip articles about traveling from her newspaper and send them to me while I lived here. I received the last one on April 29th. The travelling gene must be hereditary and the stories and example my grandparents set have influenced me. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.

Question - Who has encouraged you to travel?

To my grandparents and to you all:

May the road always rise to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face

and the rain fall softly on your fields.

And until the time that we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of his hands.

-An Irish Blessing