When love of travel leads to love

Ah, the romance of the road! The chance to reinvent oneself, to move unfettered by the past or expectation, to be absolutely present with an open heart.

Picture a summer road trip across the wide expanse of the Canadian plains. A band of hostel-sleeping, hitch-hiking backpackers bond loosely together to share gas expenses and keep wandering. There’s time to jostle and talk, to read and watch the world rolling past. There’s time to fall in love.

It wasn’t planned. One summer I was on such a trip with my boyfriend (in a cooling down phase) and we had the van filled to crowding in an effort to keep going and make it back home before college began at the end of the month. It was a simple matter to find other travelers to share the road. The movies weren’t yet plagued with grisly stories about serial killing hitch hikers. The road and life were wide open.

The boy from Michigan had a small pack full of camera gear. A long dark braid fell between his shoulder blades belying his Iroquois heritage. His stories made Joseph Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness exploits pale. I imagine they were more storytellers’ art than real, but it’s been decades since the trip and I still remember him. The image of his standing, camera ready, as we rolled past forests on our approach to Banff doesn’t fade.

A lumbering Grizzly Bear burst through the brush alongside the freeway. It was in pursuit of some prey but quickly pawed the ground breaking his run, when he saw the road, and pivoting far more quickly than should’ve been possible for such a massive creature. We were frozen. My Indian friend got the picture. It seemed heroic to a suburban, Catholic School girl on the lam for the summer.

Within days came the conversation, was I going to continue traveling down the west coast and home or take off for parts unknown with him? I don’t exactly regret my decision to stay with plan A, but every now and then I wonder.

Who knows how travel may color the heart? Today, it turns out that my life partner is also a dedicated traveler. Talking about his exploits and mine first drew us together and keeps us going as we plan future adventures. No, he doesn’t have a long braid but yes, he just happens to be a photographer - such a surprise.

Photo courtesy of the author.