Traveling Adventures

By Vicki Gies

I’ve enjoyed traveling to various places throughout my life. Some travels were for fun. Some were to visit friends or family. Some were to see new things. No matter where I traveled, or how I got there, I always enjoyed it.

I would say that my first travels started out in some kind of old-timey stroller, although I don’t remember it. I do, however, remember my very own metal tricycle. It was red and white with black handles. I traveled everywhere on that thing! I went all over our yard and our neighbor’s yard. I’m not sure what happened to it, but it may be in an antique store somewhere. It was also around that time that I did a lot of traveling in my wagon.

When I was three or four years old, I went on my first and only trip on a passenger train from Little Rock, Arkansas, where I was born, to Tupelo, Mississippi, to visit my grandparents and other relatives. The train wasn’t the only thing traveling —I also traveled from window to window to keep myself entertained.

When I was eight years old, my mother and I got to travel on my dad’s tour bus to Florida. He was part of a gospel quartet, and it was a real treat to get to ride on the bus. I remember it being very crowded.

In the early 1970s I traveled to New Orleans after visiting relatives in Mississippi and Alabama. I remember riding in the car across Lake Pontchartrain and feeling like it went forever and ever. It seemed like we were driving on the lake as we went across the 24-mile bridge and couldn’t see anything but water on either side.

Soon after that trip to New Orleans, my parents and I took what we called The Great American Road Trip out west. We started our two-week journey in Dallas, and we headed to Big Bend National Park. It was beautiful, and I remember thinking that it was odd to see mountains in Texas. Big Bend National Park is one of the only places in Texas that has mountains.

From there we traveled to New Mexico to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We took the tour and ate our packed lunch in the

“Big Room,” which is the largest cave in North America. Even though there were hundreds, maybe thousands of bats in the caverns, our lunch stayed safe from attack.

We left the caverns before getting to see the night flight that evening because we needed to continue our travels to Albuquerque to stay for the night. From there we traveled along I-40 through Monument Valley in Arizona, and on to Flagstaff, where we spent another night.

The next morning, we traveled north for the greatest highlight of the entire trip: the Grand Canyon. I’d seen pictures of it before but seeing it in person was breathtaking. From there we drove though Kayenta, Arizona, to the Four Corners, and then on to Colorado. We went through Wolf Creek Pass and on to Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge. I remember it being a very windy day when my dad drove us across the bridge.

When we got to Colorado Springs, we took the cog train up to Pike’s Peak, which is the best way to go! I got to see a bald eagle in free flight. The conductor said that the eagle’s wing span was eight feet!

My travels continued after I got married. My husband at that time was a Hella

Shriner. Whenever they had an event or convention, I got to tag along. I remember one particular event in El Paso. No one wanted to drive, and flying was too expensive. We put our heads together and chartered a Greyhound bus. The bus was to leave at night, just about the time I would be falling asleep. I don’t know about you, but I don’t sleep very well sitting up. So, for that trip, I crawled up in the luggage rack and slept as we traveled all the way to El Paso.

Whether by way of stroller, bike, wagon, passenger train, tour bus, car, cog train, or Greyhound bus, I am thankful that I have been able to travel and see so many beautiful parts of America.