Driving across Missouri on the way from Chicago to California, I was struck by the lush, green, undulating landscape—small mountains and huge forests, gorges, rivers and creeks. The land was dotted with horse farms and lovely dilapidated barns, and decorated with billboards and fireworks superstores. Wednesday gave us the infamous fudge billboard; highlights Thursday included Ozarkland billboards tantalizing passersby with every imaginable kind of candy (plus moccasins!) and a series of ads for a Precious Moments complex I hadn’t known existed.
Reading about the Precious Moments Park, I really wish we had stopped. We will if we come back through. Not knowing what we were missing, though, we drove on by as I started down a stream-of-consciousness thought path that reminded me how precious were these moments we were enjoying on this road trip and those we’ve had on others throughout my son’s youth and young adulthood. As he alternately slept and listened to audiobooks or music in the seat behind me, I went down a Memory-Lane tour of our previous family road trips: trips east to Maine and Boston and Washington and Gettysburg and Cooperstown; west to Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore: south to New Orleans; a great circle tour that included all five Great Lakes; visits with family and visits with friends.
Cornball, yes: and yet… My memory is full of precious moments from every one of these trips, and I’m conscious that we’re making more memories now. This may be our last long road trip as a family of three, and I’m painfully aware how very priceless every one of its moments is. They’ll never leave me, and I’m confident my son will carry them with him as well.
Family moments, whether at home or on the road, are precious, enduring, inviolable. They are what make us a family. Even as I prepare myself mentally to wave goodbye as my son begins a new live halfway across the United States, I’m still looking forward to the times when we will connect, either in person or through technology, and continue to have these special times.
