“An Ode To The Woman, Who Inspired Me to Travel!”

• March 9, 2020
• By Pen n Daryl
• 0 Comment

A few years ago, National Geographic Travel, inspired me to write my story on their page

They posted:
”In honor of International National Women’s Day, we’d love to hear about a woman in your life that has inspired you to travel.”

Here is what I have to say about my inspiration and maternal grandmother; Eileen Davis….who, by coincidence, passed away on this day; three years ago at 101 years of age.

My grandma was definitely my inspiration for travel! She and my grandpa worked very hard and saved their whole lives; planning for their retirement. My grandma had BIG plans to travel the world, and travel the world, she did!

At 62 years young, they both retired, sold off everything, and traveled all over the planet! As a young girl, I did not understand “how” they could just sell off all their stuff like that! (I was a teenager at the time, in the 70’s).

I didn’t know anybody that traveled the world at that time, like my grandparents did, and oh the stories my grandma told! She also Journaled alI the details, and this inspired me. I wanted to go to the places she talked and wrote about!

After years and years of globetrotting, my grandparents bought a motor home and traveled with that; all over the USA 🇺🇸 and Canada 🇨🇦. I remember my grandmother was so in love with that motor home. She was having a blast. She was proud as punch she could still make pies in her “home on wheels!” Grandpa was pretty happy about that fact, too!

While my grandpa was glad to be done traveling, my grandma was not. She kept going, doing group tours for seniors. My grandpa was happy to support her in that, while he relaxed in his favorite chair. (My grandpa, by the way, was my favorite and the most loving human on this planet)! My grandpa passed at 84. I miss him, so!

Before my grandpa passed, he and I had a memorable conversation about all their travels. He told me that if it weren’t for grandma, he would have never traveled anywhere. He initially did the travel to please her. BUT, he said, he was actually quite pleased she pushed him a bit, to get out to see this big world like they did. Over-all, he expressed he was very happy for their time together, and all the amazing sights they got to see.

Once, when in Turkey, my grandma (who always took the stairs over the elevator…..every time), tripped and fell, breaking her leg very badly! It would be an interesting flight back to the states, where she had to have surgery, and was laid up for months! But, as soon as she was healed, they were off on another trip. She would not be deterred!

Unfortunately, in her 90’s, my grandma was in full-on Dementia mode, and was no longer able to travel… Before the official diagnosis, she tried to book travel, but my mom had to intervene a couple of times, to get her money refunded, because while my grandma still had the $ and the drive to go, she no longer had the ability to travel without being a difficult guest on a tour. It was tough love, and the toughest thing to do for her safety.

In the early years of around 2003, when my daughter graduated high school, and then went into the Marine Corp, I traveled to the east coast of Parris Island in the Carolinas from home; in Oregon at the time, to watch my daughter become a Marine. I was so proud! My mom, her husband, my grandma, and my daughter’s best friend all traveled on the plane together.

While waiting for the plane to take off in Portland, my grandmother decided; last minute, to get something out of her bag in the overhead—though the plane was about to take off! She caused quite a stir, and the attendants were on the loudspeaker telling the “woman with the white hair” to sit down in her seat, immediately…. kind of thing. I was mortified; we all were, because she wouldn’t listen to anybody, and almost got removed from the plane! After we landed, and we were all in line, walking down the aisle of the plane, towards the exit (and almost off the plane) my grandma remembered she forgot her orange juice at her seat, so she turned around, and forced her way against the sea of humans who were trying to get off the plane; just so she could get her OJ! (the generation of the Great Depression never let good food go to waste, after all)! ….Oh my, what a stir she was causing again!…. it was then, I knew something was going wrong with grandma… I mean, let’s be clear, she was always strong-willed, and determined, but not usually this over the top!

After that incident on the plane, around 2006 or so, I traveled with my mom, and my grandma to England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 and Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. I remember thinking… “flying with grandma on a plane again?…. this ought to be interesting.” It was a wonderful tour, though, and I’m especially glad I had this time with my mom and grandma. But, as I had anticipated, my grandma got confused once again, and did wander off (only once) while we were walking around in a quaint little English village. The whole tour group ended up searching for her! We were delayed a little bit, but we found grandma, and she was fine; just a bit disoriented.
It’s a terrible thing when the body is strong and hardy, but the mind starts to fail.

It was not long after this, that my mom pulled the plug on my grandmothers freedom to travel. This broke my grandmas heart in a million pieces, because after my grandpa passed away; just shy of their 60th wedding anniversary, Travel was all she had to look forward to. It was hard, but for her safety, it was the right thing to do.

By the time I was 40, I really got the travel bug. I always enjoyed vacations and going when I could, to scuba dive in the tropics; but work, home, family and livestock did not allow for a lot of world travel. After I became an “empty nester,” with my daughter in the Marine Corp, I traded the country life for city life, and began doing more traveling; as much, and as often as I could, when work allowed.

Our family used to say my grandmother had “gypsy blood in her,” because she loved to go-go-go. She was happiest when she was traveling the world. From this, and in her memory, my husband and I chose.

http://2gypsiesinthewind.com

#gypsyinspiredhappilyretired

as our Website Travel Blog name and hashtag, since I too have the same “gypsy blood” in me, as my grandmother did….. BTW, I’m so grateful my husband got “bit” by the same travel bug as I did, because the only cure for the bite- that causes the itch; is to do more travel!

Fast-forward to just a few years ago; within months of my grandma passing away, my husband and I had a trip lined-up to go to Kruger National Park in South Africa to do a self-drive Safari. After my grandmothers memorial, and before we left Oregon, I arranged to acquire a small amount of my grandmothers ashes, and stowed them away in my suitcase.

You see, this would be my fourth Safari, but the only place my grandmother didn’t go (before she was grounded from traveling) was an African Safari, and this made her very sad. She lamented about not going; while she still could. So on our trip, with “grandma” along, we found the perfect place, and and scattered her ashes, while on Safari. I’m pretty sure she loved it!

Currently, after 30 and 47 years of working very hard, my husband and I are retired and traveling full-time. We sold off everything but our home in California, and we least it out. (I do get that downsizing thing, now) 😉

We are into our third year of circumventing the globe, full-time, and in about four years and “some change,” if we feel filled up with world travel, we will plan to go back to the states, get an RV and travel the USA 🇺🇸 and Canada 🇨🇦…. sound familiar?

We got a framed; large world map with magnetic pins for our grandchildren, so they can follow along “with us” on our journey, from their home. I (we) also send them individual, colorful postcards in the mail, from the many points of the globe we get to visit. AND thank goodness for FaceTime, so we get our face-to-face time; electronically! We miss our grandchildren very much, but we have to do this kind of traveling with luggage, while we are still “young” enough to do it. We do “off-the-beaten-path” kind of travel, too, and it’s definitely hard on our bodies most of the time, as we have old injuries, and the wear and tear that goes with it, but we build-in downtime to recover 🤣 😬🙃 . I am also our own “travel agent,” so while that’s a lot of work, I have the time to do that, too. We aren’t racing around the world, either. We are taking it at a do-able pace, so we can fully embrace what each country has to offer.

My daughter, thankfully, does not make me feel guilty one single bit about being away from the grandchildren right now, either. In fact, she encourages me and tells me; “Mom, I’m gonna be doing the same thing you are doing, when I retire!”

Apples do NOT fall far from the tree!

I like to say, we will return to our home when we are “old”… VERY old; bent-over, walking with a cane, old! 😜

It’s in my mind, now, my own saying:
“One day, when my body fails to thrive any longer, I will somehow know that I really lived, while I still could”

AND, when that time comes, I will have a large, lighted curio cabinet/floor to ceiling, where I will showcase all our little trinkets and treasures; purchases made from around the world…. just like my grandmother did.

In addition, I do wear small, post diamond earrings, full-time, as we travel. They screw in, and I never take them off. My grandmother left them to me, after she passed, and in some small way, it feels like she still gets to travel the world, right along with me….

BTW, remember the part in the story, where my grandmother fell and broke her leg? She was in Turkey 🇹🇷 at that time.

….We are in Turkey right now… and being careful on stairs