I’m flying at 39,000 feet on the way to Italy! Oh, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Adventures, vacations and opportunity – what do they have in common? RISK. And in my mind risk has a twin, it’s name is FEAR.
Yeah blame it on my past. I wasn’t raised in an environment where fun and spontaneity where valued. My world was chaotic and unpredictable. So what? It meant nothing until I met and married an adventurer. She is is full of ideas and dreams and possibilities. And, because she loves me, she throttled back to my speed of life – granny gear. “We can’t do that it cost too much money.” Or, “Other people do those things, we can’t.” It didn’t start all extravagant. I couldn’t even fathom a family vacation that featured camping out. Do you know how cheap a family camp out can be? Yeah, dirt cheap!
After we’d been married ten years… T E N Y E A R S, my patient sweetie convinced me to try vacation training wheels. That’s where you go with a wiser, more experienced family and learn how to do vacation. Operative word, Learn.
We borrowed a tent trailer from friends and off we went to one of most beautiful spots on the face of the planet – Richardson’s Grove Campgrounds. Home to the tallest redwoods, cleanest streams and bonus – the Bigfoot Tourist Trap. Our trainers, Bob & Sara Matulich, showed us the way to travel, pack, decompress, enjoy good food and have meaningful conversation. True vacation. It was magical.
It was at the Bigfoot Store that we first purchased a $1.99 key ring in faith that one day we’d own a tent trailer of our own.
We managed to buy a really old-school Coleman Tent Trailer. It was huge, old, musty and cheap. Perfect for our family. We could tow it around and not worry if it got all beat up and broke – which it did. AND, no one wanted to borrow it!
So back to Italy. I’m just telling you, we didn’t start with Italy, we started with simple and cheap and (I) had to work our way up to extravagant and reasonable. I would list all the places we’ve vacationed, but you might think I was bragging. We’ve been a lot of cool places!
Oh, Italy. So here’s how this one came about (my version).
Robin was asked to help out at Children’s Pastors Convention. She and a few friends took turns promoting our denominational Kid’s curriculum. While they were at the booth the national Kid’s Ministries Director mentioned an European Missions Conference coming up in the fall and suggested that Robin and some team members join him to minister to Missionary Kids whose family serves all over Europe. At first Robin didn’t know he was serious, but it turned out that a few weeks after they talked Robin was asked to lead the team of her choosing. People needed to be asked, money needed to be raised and plans had to be put in place. At first she had ten people on the team but it worked its way down to six. Robin wanted me to go along to help with technology and logistics. I told her I could use my frequent flyer points to get my own ticket so her and her puppet friend, Georgie, wouldn’t have to work so hard to raise the money.
We decided to add on a few days after the conference to spend in Venice, Florence and Rome. Early in our marriage Robin talked up Paris. But after a few friends of hers went, they talked her into switching romance from France to Italy.
It’s been an HUGE stretch for me to go from camping to touring Italy! It’s not all about the money either. Believe it or not the money (or amazing friends) isn’t all that it takes. It started with a dream and a discussion. Im learning to enjoy both.
So that’s how we got to Italy. Oh, by the way, since I started this blog in the air. We’re now sitting in a hotel room in Rome. We are taking the train to Bologna then Bellaria in the morning.
Ciao.