Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

  This is us at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco    

I got a comment to yesterday’s article that was brief yet enlightened. I talked about a rest-stop historical marker that I found in the middle of Nevada, near I-80, a sign I’m certain not many people can even find let alone would bother to read.  The comment about that sign was this: “And I never would have seen this flying over this land.”  The person who wrote that comment, Dennis, I know well.  He’s my best friend, and he’s been traveling all over the world for the past two years on a never ending string of business trips.  He flies everywhere and lives in hotels.  Every week he’s in a new city, and every morning he wakes up and works – nose to the grindstone.  We probably all know someone like him (although he might be a bit on the extreme side).  We think of them as cosmopolitan because of their nomadic tendencies, but the truth is that they might be less informed about the world than the rest of us who have only been a few places in our lives.  It took me 5 minutes to read that historical marker and to take a few pictures.   I drove across the country in the first place because I don’t like to fly.  I had time to waste.  My friend didn’t read that sign because he doesn’t have the time, and he’s so accustomed to flying that he probably wouldn’t consider driving even if he did have the time. And that’s my point.    

Learning happens only when we pay attention    

It’s not Dennis’ fault he’s missed out on valuable learning experiences. But, every time I start getting envious of his many world travels, I have to remind myself that they’re really no fun at all considering how little he actually sees of those places.  I’ll take my small family vacations to seemingly unexciting places if it means I can smell the roses along the way.  But, Even driving would be no help to learning if I didn’t pay attention along the way.  I could have just stopped at that rest area to pee and then jumped back in the car.  Instead, I lingered and found the sign.  Even better, I stopped at a bunch of places where I didn’t even have the ulterior motive of having to pee first.    

The Behunin Cabin: A family of 10 lived in that tiny little House.  They couldn’t all sleep there though as there wasn’t room for 10 bodies.  The boys of the family carved out an impression in a cliff wall and used it for shelter at night (Alan, in orange, is sitting in it in the below photo), and the older girls slept in a wagon parked outside (the two youngest kids stayed in the house with their parents).  The family stayed for several years before their crops died and they had to move on.    

Petroglyphs: I’ve only seen petroglyphs once before in my life.  These, near Escalante Utah, made an impression on the boys.    

Tide Pools: Both the boys were born in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and have always lived in landlocked areas of the country.  The tide pools, even if the tide was in when we were there, and we didn’t get a good look at them, were impressive.  Even considering our lack of timing, the thrill of walking along rocks towards breaking waves was obvious to me.    

Elephant Seals: I’ve never seen elephant seals before.  It was new for everybody.  We got to see thousands of them on this trip (North of San Simeon).    

Alcatraz: Okay, this was a completely pre-meditated stop.  True quote from Neil after the tour was over — “Prison isn’t as fun as I imagined it.” Now that’s a lesson worth learning.    

Detour over the Golden Gate Bridge: We drove around the bay the long way just so we could go over the Golden Gate Bridge.  It turned out to be a pretty awesome decision as we hit it going north, and that means there was no toll.  The San Rafael Bridge also had no toll heading East.    

Except for Alcatraz, every detour I just mentioned was a spur of the moment decision that wouldn’t have been possible had I not felt free to make them. If I had lacked time, none of it would have happened. I’m not a rich person, but I count myself fortunate that I have freedom to do what I want to do.  A lot of people don’t.  Someday, Dennis tells me, he’ll have the time too.  I hope he does because life just isn’t worth the hassle if you can’t smell the roses sometimes.

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