The list had a bunch of places I wanted to see. The airline gave me free flights, and I intended to make the most of them. What was the point of throwing bags for an airline if I wasn't going to fly, right? Sure, growing big shoulders was great, but my goal was to put 'em to use hauling my own pack as often as possible. Most of the places on the list were landmarks from US history and Americana.
My list from that first summer (as closely as I can remember):
- Grand Canyon
- Liberty Bell
- Niagara Falls
- Space Needle
- Golden Gate Bridge
- That Huge Tree You Can Drive a Car Through
- Grauman's Chinese Theater
- Maine lobster (eat)
- Northern Lights (see)
- Great Sand Dunes
Of those, that summer I only knocked out the Liberty Bell, Niagara Falls, and the Golden Gate Bridge. It would take two subsequent summers of luggage tossing for me to hit the Space Needle, the Grand Canyon, the Chinese Theater, and the lobster. The "huge tree you can drive a car through" lost some of its appeal to me, once I stopped to consider the symbolism of the thing, but I did see some huge trees in Yosemite a couple of summers later.
The Northern Lights and the Great Sand Dunes, I have yet to visit.
When I think back to that summer, a decade ago, I remember what a frenzy of travel that was, and how many things I saw that weren't on my list.
I saw Chitzen Itza. I went to see my godfather in New Hampshire (and got lobster there -- pretty close to Maine). I went to Paris. Almost every week found me someplace different, squeaking through the airline system on standby, occupying available seats as much as I could, subsisting on little packets of pretzels and dixie cups of cola. I got a lot of souvenir tshirts. I got lost all over the place. I got some kind of stomach thing in Mexico, but it went away.
For good, I hope ....
Anyway, now here I am, ten years older, and back at the airport chucking bags again. I have a brand-new backpack.
I'm thinking about where I should go.
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