Our Wanderer

Elizabeth was about eighteen months old when she took her first solo road trip.  We’d been to visit my mom and dad to show off our two-month-old addition, Michael.  My Uncle Harry and Aunt Phyllis dropped by and, as they were leaving, asked Elizabeth if she wanted to go home with them.  She did.  That was the beginning of her wandering ways.

I can’t tell you all the times she’s been on the road.  She’s visited Europe, spent six of her twelve-week honeymoon in Africa and the second six driving around the United States.  She’s spent a few weeks in Canada, made a couple visits to Hawaii, and taken multiple trips to Mexico and Costa Rica.  I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but you get the idea.  Ironically, she’s done all of her travel by airplane and car.  She’s never been on a cruise because she thinks they’re “floating Petri dishes”.  Covid reinforced that belief.

She’s done much of her travel while married to Sutton.  That’s one of the reasons they get along so well.  They both quit their jobs and took a fifteen-month road trip through bars and honkytonks in three different countries. They literally “sang for their supper”. They’re both wanderers.

Her trip to Europe was a graduation gift from Ruth and me after she earned her master’s degree.  Ruth, her two sisters, Kathy and Shirley, our niece Kim, and Ruth’s Aunt Casey, were all a part of the two-week trip.  They flew to Europe and explored it in a van.  It was a grand adventure.

A couple of years after she moved to California, Elizabeth decided to go to Costa Rica for three months.  She signed up with an outfit similar to the peace corps.  She was assigned to live with a family and work in a local nature preserve.  The family knew she was coming, but the nature preserve had no clue of her arrival.

The house she lived in had no glass, or screens, on the windows and no toilet seat.  Bats flew through the house each evening.  I learned of her living conditions via emails we exchanged.  I told her to send me her address so I could ship a toilet seat to her, but she declined.  It was just one of the ways she demonstrated her independence.  She had a “when in Rome” attitude and just squatted like the rest of the family.

The nature preserve did find work for her, but it wasn’t what she’d been told she be doing.  She met a young lady from Europe who found herself in a similar situation.  The two decided to venture off by themselves for the balance of the three months.  We kept in contact, and I tracked her progress, via a series of emails.  I saved them, had them printed for her, and now they serve as a historic reminder of the trip.

She leaves tonight on a ten-day trip to Bali.  Once again, she’s flying solo.  Sutton has given his blessing and I’m crossing my fingers.  She flies from Los Angeles to Taipei City, Taiwan.  She has a four hour lay-over, then off to Bali.

Bali is known for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music.  It’s a prime destination for world travelers.  Like a lot of other places, it had restrictions during covid but recently started to allow visitors from selected countries.  The United Sates is one of them, so Elizabeth jumped at the chance.

I believe there’s a dozen travelers, eleven women and one man.  I don’t know where they’re from or why they’re going.  I do know her “roommate” is from Oregon but grew up in the Midwest.  They’ve exchanged introductory emails and are looking forward to traveling together.  For Elizabeth, it’s a way to learn about another culture and to see things others only dream about.  She’s living hers.

As for me, I’ll be checking my daily emails.  She’s promised to keep in touch that way.  In the end, I’ll copy them and give a set to her.  And if she finds the people of Bali don’t believe in toilet seats, I’ll have one sent from my Amazon account because Prime promises next day delivery.