Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - June 28, 2024

Seems like home to me

As I get older, the more I have come to appreciate how I have changed in certain regards, while other aspects have remained constant.

I have always enjoyed traveling and meeting new people. But in my younger years, this was more about seeing new things and meeting different people. Getting out of bed, enjoying a quick breakfast, and hitting the road was where it was at. In many cases, the bed I arose from the next day was in a different city from the one I slept in the previous one. Every now and then I’d "crash" when the go-go-go exploring would catch up with me and I might have to cut the day short in the afternoon and give in to the need for more sleep. But I did so with some resentment, as it felt I was wasting valuable time. No trip ended without husband Art and me checking the odometer of our rental car to impress ourselves with how many miles we had driven.

Our travel today is different. This observation came to mind recently as we were returning to our home-away-from-home in North Wales. Art and I had just spent the majority of a Friday watching musical performances by youngsters in what had been nothing more than a farm field just a few days before. Not exactly an A-list attraction.

When we were younger, we sometimes stayed at one location more than a day, but it wasn't because of any wish to connect locally. It was prompted by our desire to see multiple attractions nearby. It's hard to run out of things to see and do in London, Paris, or Berlin.

Still, that is a long way from actually choosing to spend hours watching local youngsters sing, dance, and play musical instruments. They weren't polished professional performers, but children with skills as our daughters had when they were in school.

So how have these changes had an impact on us, over and above spending a day at a youngsters' music festival? For one, we've developed friendships that span years rather than hours. We can attend events that we learn about days or even weeks before, rather than only those on a day we happen to be visiting a particular place. We rent a self-catering home, so we have a full kitchen and can make anything from family-favorite foods to snacks when we tire of dressing to go to local restaurants. At home, I find shopping for groceries rather boring and something I am glad Art enjoys doing. While traveling, I look forward to going to the store to see how the locals package their food and seeing what is available. If the weather isn't suitable for visiting some interesting place, we can do it a different day. If it's too cool or wet, we may spend the day reading or doing some other rainy-day activity. And we often drive from place to place without a map or GPS, as the routes are familiar.

Our new mode of travel surprises not just me, but the people we meet as well. Often, after hearing one of us speak, someone will ask where we are from. That's typically followed by something like "So how long are you over for?" When the place you are staying isn't particularly famous and you explain you'll be there for several weeks, expressions generally shift from mild interest to puzzlement. Sometimes a local family connection is proposed or assumed. Seeing how Art and friend Jan interact, one local recently wondered if they were brother and sister. Art describes her as the sister he never had and she describes him as the brother she never had. Such a connection takes all of the 41 years since they first met to form. It now includes several generations of our families.

We met our recent hosts, Lins and John, and their sons, David and Owain, two years ago, not through some Airbnb site, but by recommendations from friends. We feel we have become more than "guests." When Art's cousin Kris was with us for two weeks, she and I spent several hours watching Lins transform huge bowls of flour and other ingredients into mounds of rising dough. Kris got up early the next morning to watch Lins turn those mounds into loaves of delicious bread to sell at a local market. We also had the chance to speak with John’s cousin Alwyn about sheep farming in Wales and to watch him and his son handle them. In addition, we've enjoyed visiting with Lins’ mother, Rebecca "Boo."

I shake my head now when I see others doing what we used to do. It isn't that I feel I'm wiser or that others should slow down and smell the flowers. It's not a matter of a right way or a wrong way. Rather, it's about a different way. I've now seen as many castles and cathedrals as I need to see. Experiencing a fancy restaurant and eating its expensive food is enjoyable, but we enjoy them now more as an occasional treat than a daily experience.

I recall years ago when friend Mary Ellen mentioned how she and husband Ralph went to London each summer for a month or so. Friend Judy and husband David did the same in Paris. When I heard about their trips, I thought how much fun that would be. And now I've discovered just how enjoyable it is. Our destinations have changed from somewhere we visit to something like another home.

These home-away-from-home travels are quite different from our trips of the past. Those were good, but so are these. As a historian, I love the past, but I really don't want to live there.