R and J in the USA

Julie was excited to get her Nevada swim in early in the trip as we headed towards Boulder Beach at Lake Mead, the largest manmade lake in the US (when at fully capacity, which it hasn’t been since 1983) thanks to the damming effects of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.

The drive down to the parking area at Boulder Beach was, as it’s name suggests might be the case, rocky – as was the hundred yard walk from the rocky parking area to the water’s edge. The drive from southern Utah to the lowest point in Nevada had provided us with a significant temperature change. Now having entered the Mojave Desert, there was no more frost on the ground and no more need for the heater. Still, it was November, so the sunshine warmed us with temperatures somewhere in the 60’s. Julie headed out towards the water just to get a temperature check to see whether a wetsuit would be in order or not. On her way back to the van to grab her goggles and water shoes after dipping a toe in the pleasantly cool waters, she passed the midsize rented RV that was parked a hundred feet or so away from us on this wide open rocky space and was greeted by the pleasant sounds of a New Zealand accent.

”What a beautiful day.” The friendly voice called out to her.

”Yea, and the water is really nice!” Julie exclaimed.

”Yea, not too cold at all. I still wouldn’t want to go for a swim though.”

”Oh, I’m definitely getting in there.” Julie proclaimed as the gentleman nodded and smiled with a bit of surprise at the unexpected twist.

”I see water like that,” Julie continued, “and I’ve got to get in it.”

Halfway through Julie’s swim in the perfectly cool waters of Lake Mead, Ryan had gotten up from his nap and had come down to greet her and document her swimming adventures. When Julie stepped out of the water, he said, “We got invited over for a beer by that nice New Zealand couple next door.”

When we walked back towards the van, Craig and Kelly had finished setting up their portable table out besides the RV in a beautiful spot overlooking the lake and the brown, undulating Nevada mountain views surrounding it. They were setting up a lovely afternoon picnic with their two young kids running about.

It didn’t take long to get into a friendly conversation with the world-traveling family and we were instantly enjoying getting to know them and chatting with them. There are some folks that we’ve met along the way where we find it just a bit challenging to get a conversation rolling (and those ones usually don’t make it into a “People Along the Way” post) and then there are some folks where it is as easy to chat to as old friends. Craig and Kelly were the latter. They were friendly, welcoming and quick to smile and they had what we have found to be the number one most important ingredient to easy conversation-making – curiosity. We all peppered each other with questions born of an abundant flow of such curiosity about each other’s lives and trips that led us to cross paths at this very particular spot in the world at this very particular time.

Crossing paths with anyone, when you think about it, is kind of an amazing phenomenon, especially once you get to chatting with someone. It is entirely likely, as you travel the world and criss-cross through random and particular spots that you will run into other human beings. That in itself is not remarkable. But, then, once you get to chatting with someone and knowing them specifically, it can start to seem a little bit more remarkable that, after traveling through life and all of its complex adventures that, somewhere along your distant and far-reaching paths, that you would happen upon the exact same spot on this huge earth at the exact same time, has a certain wonderfulness to it. We will likely never see Kelly and Craig again (though we would be happy if we did), somehow, all the many events of our four mutual lives brought us to this very particular spot on the planet, far away from all of our homes, at this very particular time. In some ways, it’s as normal as can be, and in some ways, it’s just kind of remarkable.

Anyways, as the conversation continued, what we learned about Craig and Kelly absolutely delighted us.

Originally from Auckland, they had decided to bring their two little ones, ages 2 and 3.5 on an 8 week trip to the states. They had flown into Los Angeles on a direct flight that was 14 hours long and rented this medium sized RV that, while they weren’t in love with it, it was getting the job done and they were loving the RV travel experience overall. They had toured some of the highlights in California, especially those that would delight their younguns – which of course, included a Disneyland vacation and a visit to the San Diego Zoo. They had loved driving down the coast and been aghast at the prices in Disneyland. After revealing, with the appropriate degree of shock, that the balloons had been $20 USD a piece – they followed up with the expected admission that they, of course, had bought one for each of their kids. 

“Yup. That’s how they get ya. Disneyland will soak you dry because they know you’re on a vacation you’ve been saving up for and they know how much you just want to make your kids happy.”

They nodded in agreement with the look of folks who had been given the full Disneyland shakedown and, while a little financially worse for the wear, had zero regrets and had loved their time there.

They explained that, after their planned stop in Las Vegas later that night (where we would also be headed), their next stop would be Texas and then back home. 

“What made you choose California, Las Vegas and Texas as your stops for your US trip?” we inquired, not because we couldn’t understand the appeal of either place, just out of curiosity for choosing two non-contiguous spots.

”There are only three cities that have direct flights to New Zealand. LA and Dallas are two of them and changing flights with 2 toddlers is a nightmare.” Kelly explained.

Craig explained how they would soon be dropping the RV back off at the rental place, then hopping a flight to Texas for the final leg of their trip before getting their non-stop flight home from there.

”It might seem a strange reason to plan a trip around…” Kelly added.

Julie jumped in, “Oh not at all. We don’t have kids to travel with, but we know first hand, logistical considerations like that are everything when traveling. They may seem little from the outside, but they make all the difference. We get it. And we can only imagine what it’s like to navigate such a big trip with two little ones to tend to.”

As we were talking, we heard the heartwarming sounds of siblinghood emanating from the RV as we chatted with Craig and Kelly. We turned and saw a familiar scene – the younger sibling screaming and crying in torment with the older sibling standing just behind them with the type of adorably guiltless and slightly maniacal, though innocently maniacal, glee that only a tormenting sibling can display. We both laughed, not because we would ever want to laugh at a 2 year old crying out in pain, but because we both remember being that 2 year old (give or take a few years), or being in the reverse position, tormenting our older siblings (or attempting to from our diminutive positions as babies in our respective families) at a time when we were too young to understand the concept of pain or torment – like the time Julie’s father had told her that, while riding in the backseat of the car with her older sister, Julie had simply poked her older sister in the eye, not out of cruelty, but out of a simple innocent curiosity that toddler’s have, like, “I wonder what happens when you do this.” Then, while her sister was mid-cry after being so violated, her father described the look on Julie’s little face of having found out what happens when you do such a ting, realizing she didn’t like it at all and then moving on. (PS – Julie would like to apologize to her sister for that one, for what it is worth 40+ years on) 

Ryan, having been the youngest of 7 had been no stranger to the torment of older siblings and no stranger to the fact that the mutual torment and frictions that take place between siblings is part of the nostalgic joy of growing up and discovering how life works, and part of what is the glue of the bonds that can last throughout life. Somehow, remembering the adventures along with the misadventures, the trips into town for ice cream as well as the trips to the hospital for stitches seemed to take up residence in the same corner of the brain as warm, fond memories of a rich childhood well-lived.

It is for this reason that we looked upon the scene with hearts warmed, even though there was a two year old in tears. 

When Kelly returned after playing her role as judge, jury and mediator between the two, she explained, “They are 15 months apart. They are absolutely best friends and do everything together, which also means…”

”They fight like siblings?” Julie asked.

”Exactly.” Kelly smiled.

At some point, of course, we got to talking about our trip and Kelly and Craig seemed just as enthralled by our story as we had already been by theirs. We explained how we were fitting all 50 states into 10 months.

”Wow, you must be the only people who have ever done that.” Kelly exclaimed.

We looked at each other with the same reflective and curious look.

”Oh, we doubt that. We are sure there are plenty of people that have done it.” we said as we recounted all the people we’d already met on the trip with their various 50 state adventures. But, then as we thought about it, we realized, we hadn’t yet met anyone that did all 50 in one trip. We knew others had done that before, but maybe not a 10 month trip to really try to hit the highlights in each state as opposed to just popping into one spot to check that state off the list. And, maybe there wasn’t another or not many that also did a 5K in each state along the way in one 10 month trip. All of a sudden, we started to feel more special and precious about our little adventure than we probably had any right to feel. That feeling quickly passed as we settled into the assumption that there must be other folks that had done it – but still with a neat feeling of realizing that we were likely doing something for which there were only a handful of others with whom we could claim a truly shared experience. It was a neat thing to reflect on. Regardless, we had never set out to do the trip in order to be original or singular in any way. We set out to do it because it was a trip we wanted to do and that was enough for us – even though it was neat to imagine the possibility of it being so unique. After answering a few more of their questions about our trip, which we always enjoy doing, we were quickly back to inquiring more about theirs.

As they continued answering our questions about their travel adventures, Craig and Kelly casually dropped a piece of information about their upcoming itinerary amidst the other details. 

They dropped it so casually that it was the middle part of a sentence that we don’t remember, as it was, otherwise, such an unremarkable sentence…until the middle part.

”….and then, we are getting married…”

”Wait, what?!” we both interrupted. ”You are getting married tomorrow?”

As if just realizing that this was fairly important news, they responded with a renewed attention to the fact that this was a story worth telling and they had two very enthusiastic and curious listeners.

”Oh, yea. We are getting married tomorrow in Las Vegas.”

”Wow! Congratulations!” We exclaimed.

”Yea, you know, it’s the whole COVID thing.”

We both immediately played out the scenario in our own minds before they even got to explaining, both of us doing the math of COVID hitting four years ago and here they were with a 3.5 year old and a 2 year old.

”Yea, we were going to get married, and then COVID happened, and we didn’t want to wait to have kids. Then we had the kids and, of course, life and so, eventually, we wanted to get around to actually getting married.”

“We thought we could spend all that money on the wedding, or we could take that money and make a whole trip out of it and just throw the getting married part in there.”

”How great is that!” we were both totally enthusiastic about their adventure and how they were just going for it.

”Originally it was just going to be us, but my parents are flying in tomorrow for it. At first, we wanted it to be just us, but then we thought about the babysitting benefits.” If Kelly’s parents ever end up reading this blog, Kelly, we are sorry that we are outing you! Of course, parents know that they are deeply loved, but, when toddlers are involved, their prime value does become their babysitting capacity, so we are sure the sentiments will be well understood.

Well, it was fair to say that we were thoroughly impressed by Kelly and Craig – their spirit of adventure, their live-life-to-the-fullest-ness, their friendly and welcoming spirit and their ability to pull it all off and give their children adventures and wonderful memories to boot.

”Some of our friends have asked, ‘Why would you take them on all these adventures when they will be too young to remember it?’” Kelly said.

”But, even if they don’t specifically remember, they will remember it in their bones, these warm feelings that make all the difference as they grow into who they are going to be.” Julie added.

”Exactly,” said Kelly, “That’s what we were hoping. Even if they don’t remember it specifically, we are hoping that it will open them to the qualities we hope they develop. Being adventurous, open to new things, fun and wonder.”

Well, good on ya, Kelly and Craig. Good on ya, indeed.

While we certainly got to enjoy the spirit of the original invitation, we never did end up having that beer with them, mostly because we don’t drink. Nonetheless, we are raising a glass to them on their special day. Here’s to Kelly and Craig and their two little ones – we wish them a lifetime of adventure, good health and lots of joy, fun and wonder. If anyone deserves it, we are certainly sure that they do!