June-July 2021: First post-covid vacation

At the end of June and the beginning of July, Lily and I were able to do something we have not done since the start of the pandemic. We were able to travel together for vacation. We Missouri on Sunday, June 20, right after worship. We spent two weeks crisscrossing the south and made several wonderful memories along the way.

The first portion of the journey was spent traveling through Alabama. We stopped at the space center in Huntsville, the Barber Motorsports Park and motorcycle museum at Birmingham, and the Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker. In addition to the great food and very friendly people we encountered along the way, all three of those stops showed us some of the amazing ways people are able to use technology, in both war and peace.

Alabama also provided a reminder of our nation’s struggle to more fully live into its ideals. In Montgomery we spent time traveling the civil rights trail. The trail commemorates both the darkest parts of slavery, lynching, and segregation, as well as the resiliency, culture, and power of the Black community. It was a powerful testimony to how far we have come, but also a caution of how far we still have to go.

Our primary destination for the trip was a resort in Panama City Beach. We spent several days with our feet in the sand, riding bikes, and simply watching the world go by. It was the most relaxing thing either of us have done in a long time. Florida also gave us the opportunity to visit the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and to visit Jonathan Williams, one of my roommates from the Motorcycle Relief Project in March. We had dinner with him and his wife, Elizabeth, and got to spend some time in the Tango 3 coffee shop he runs in Niceville.

Eventually it was time to begin working our way back north. We stopped at Plains, Georgia, the hometown of President Jimmy Carter. The school he and Rosalyn attended, the train depot that served as his campaign headquarters, the family farm, and his brother’s gas station have all been preserved. Although we knew that he was a small town boy, we were both surprised by how tiny the community actually was. Currently there are 700 people in town. When he was growing up the population was closer to 300.

From there we headed to Savannah, Georgia. We spent the weekend right downtown in the midst of the old city. It was a beautiful city with lots of history. We worshipped in a Methodist Church that dates back to the foundation of the Wesleyan movement. Savannah felt almost European in the way the buildings and streets were laid out. The weekend ended with a brief visit to one of Lily’s classmates in South Carolina.

As an aviation buff, I have always wanted to visit Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This month I finally had that opportunity. Truth be told, it was a bit of a pilgrimage. To stand in the spot where the Wright Brothers made their first four flights, as well as to stand on the dune where they conducted their glider experiments was truly incredible. To make it even better, for my birthday Lily treated me to hang glider lessons. They were short glides, but for a brief few moments I got to fly in the same place where powered human flight first began.

The final stop was Durham, North Carolina, where we got to spend several days with Lily’s family. Because of the pandemic we had not seen each other in a couple of years. It was great to get a chance to catch up. Kids have grown. Life has changed in many ways. All of us simply enjoyed the opportunity to be in each other’s presence once again. It was one of the most relaxed visits we have had in a long while.

For me the trip came to an end at that point. I flew home from Raleigh-Durham International Airport while Lily continued her trip for another couple of weeks. She spent some time with the New York side of her family before returning to Missouri in time to start getting ready for the coming fall semester.

Even though this trip was delayed for far too long, it proved to be one of the most restorative experiences we have had since the pandemic began. We packed a lot into those two weeks, caught up with people we hadn’t seen in years, and got to spend some valuable uninterrupted time together. It was exactly what we needed.