Jerry told me if I'd marry him, he'd buy me a computer and take me to see the world. In 1986, the promise of a computer was enticing. The promise to see the world? Exciting. It was especially exciting for a girl who'd never been anywhere outside of St. Louis, New Orleans, or Six Flags over Texas in my childhood. As a teacher and student council sponsor, I had flown to a few conventions in big cities, but I hadn't really driven anywhere outside Oklahoma.
He has kept his promise. The summer we met in Pittsburgh at a National Student Council convention, Jerry Cramer asked me if I had a car that would make it to Colorado. He had an old blue van, barely sputtering. One month later, in July 1985, Jerry drove me in my little Toyota Corona to Aspen, Colorado, to see the Rocky Mountains. We camped by the clear lake at the Maroon Bells, two mountaintops covered with snow, even in summer. We watched the hot air balloon races in Snowmass, too, making it there before sunrise to watch over fifty balloons gracefully lift and soar over our heads. My mother was horrified and embarrassed that I would set across country with someone I barely knew, but by the time Jerry and I made it back to Oklahoma, I was in love.
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| Jerry and me in front at the Maroon Bells July, 2012 |
For our honeymoon the next summer, we went on our first cruise--to Jamaica, Haiti, Cozumel--my first time to see the Caribbean. A few years later, in Puerto Vallarta, I hovered 100 yards above a motorboat under a parasail, landing unharmed in the sand.
Our vacations haven't really been vacations but adventures. We took a train ride across the Sierra Madres in Mexico from Chihauhua to Los Mochis, with stops at Creel and Divisidaro, our first time to stay in a $100 a night hotel. On our trip we met travelers from all over the world, speaking several languages, translating from one language to another to English so we could understand.
We've been across the U.S. in our RV, visiting the national parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Sequoia Forest, the Grand Canyon, not to mention Disneyland and Hollywood. We've seen the blue bonnets in Texas, visited grave sites of long-dead relatives, seen where my ancestors landed near Galveston.
We've been from Vancouver to Panama Beach, from Maine to Baja. We observed the unearthing of wooly mammoths in South Dakota and stood amazed in front of Mount Rushmore. We watched the Potomac from rocking chairs on George Washington's back porch at Mount Vernon; saw Thomas Jefferson's boots, books, dishes, gardens, and grave at Monticello.
We took a Windjammer cruise in Maine in a ship built in 1887, helped raise the sails and hoist the anchor, slept on the deck under the stars, ate fresh lobster on the shore. We visited Walden Pond, sat where Thoreau communed with nature, and saw the bridge where the shot heard round the world rang out.
We trekked across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda. We rode a hot air balloon over the Serengetti and camped there, too, surrounded by elephants, lions, and hyenas. We watched over sixty six elephants parade in front of us, trumpeting and stirring up dirt. We camped outside a Masai village, sang and danced with the Masai. We watched wildebeests cross the river in Masai Mora, escaping hungry crocodiles. We climbed a mountain in Rwanda to see gorillas.
We've been on cruises to Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and Belize, and the Mediterranean. We've been to Italy and Sicily and Greece. We attended Jerry's son Chris's wedding to Minou in Santorini and boated on Lake Como near the Swiss border. We trekked through Pompeii, saw Mt. Etna spew, were blessed by Pope Benedict outside St. Peter's, craned our necks to see the Sistine Chapel ceiling, stood amazed in front of the statue of David, saw the ruins of an ancient Greek theater in Taormina, rode through the streets of Monte Carlo, swam in the sea at Cannes.
In the Sea of Cortez, we saw gray whales, humpbacks, over sixty sperm whales cavorting and even two rare blue whales, blowing and swirling in the water. In our smaller boat, we were close enough to the gray whales to touch them.
Summer before last, we saw the unique creatures of Galapagos face to face and swam with sea lions; boated down the Amazon River, serenaded by parakeets and parrots; visited the ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu on the one hundredth anniversary of its discovery.
This spring we went to Puerto Rico, where we paddled a translucent kayak in Mosquito BioBay, one of the most bioluminescent bays in the world, watching billions of tiny dots glowing like fireflies each time we lifted our paddles.
On all these trips I kept journals, packed with the details of our trips, the places we stayed, the people we met, the creatures we encountered. I've typed up only a couple of these stories. But now with technology attending me--by the way, I'm on my seventh computer--I'm blogging my adventures instead.
This summer from a balcony in Pamplona, Spain, I watched Jerry run with the bulls. Together we visited the Alhambra, saw the Rock of Gibraltar, visited Rick's Cafe in Casablanca, rode the train to Marrakech, rode camels at the edge of the Sahara Desert. Some of you have followed my posts on Facebook. I hope you'll come along for our adventure to Spain and Morocco.
Here's our itinerary for Spain and Morocco in July:
July 4: Arrive in Madrid
July 5: Madrid to Pamplona
July 6-7-8 Running of the Bulls, Pamplona
July 8: Train from Pamplona to Madrid to Granada
July 9: The Alhambra
July 10: Granada to Tarifa and the Rock of Gibraltar
July 11: Gibraltar to Casablanca, Morocco
July 12-13: Casablanca
July 14: Volubilis, Meknes, Fes, the imperial city, Roman ruins
July 15: Fes/Medina
July 15: to Merzonga and the desert camp
July 17: Todra Gorge, village walk
July 18: Ait Ben Haddou, UNESCO site
July 19-20: Marakesh
July 21-23: Essaouira, on the coast
July 24: Casablanca to OKC
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