Around the World

"We just went around the world!” Those were the last words I can recall that my father said to me. Just prior to a trip to Japan, I travelled to Maine to visit my parents. I tried to get up there every two or three months to see them as they were advanced in age.

On this particular trip, I took my parents for a road trip as I often do when I visit them. My mother and father are avid roadsters. They just like to be in their car and driving through the state. My father in particular loves to drive, and he spent many years behind the steering wheel just driving he and my mother around. When my father got to an advanced age where it was becoming impractical to drive, I would often take he and my mother for long drives.

On this day, I took my parents for about a three hour car ride. We drove in a circle of about a 50 mile radius. When I returned them back to their home, my father thanked me for the ride, and then he said that we just went around the world. Those are among the last words I recall that he said to me.

I asked him what he meant by it, and he clarified. He told me he recalled as a young child being piled into the car with all his siblings, and his father, taking them for a similar drive. When they finished his father would use that quote.

I thought about that later when I was in Japan. My parents whole world was in a 50 mile radius from where they were born. Of course, they made some trips out of the state and even the Canada, but 99+% of their life was spent in a 50 mile radius. Not unlike most people of the world.

My father passed away while I was in Japan. I've often thought of the last day that I was with him. I think of that trip often and those words that he spoke. It made me realize just how small the world is for most people in it. For most of the people in the world this is sufficient. It certainly was for my parents.

I still travel to Maine and visit my mother who is 92 years old and lives by herself still. She doesn't get many opportunities these days to take these road trips. I try to visit her every two or three months and I always take her for long drives each day I'm up there. I often take her on that same trip that I took her and my father on just prior to his passing. I take her around the world that she knows

I took the scenery that I grew up with for granted when I was young. It was only in my adult years that I really appreciated the true beauty of that 50 mile radius that is their world.

I will be happy to give you a small flavor of it in this post.

Coos Canyon

This canyon was a favorite stop off place of my parents. The canyon with the waterfalls was easy access from the main road so they could just pull off into the parking lot. They were picnic tables there and even a store across the road where they could buy a sandwich and eat it if they liked.

This is also an old gold panning river. It is still active today as you will see people in the summertime panning, whether they be inexperienced or people who truly do it to make a profit of this precious metal.

Furthering the drive past Coos Canyon located in Roxbury, between Rumford and Rangely, is an area known as Height of Land.

Tomorrow I’ll post more pictures of this 50 mile radius which was their world.

Although the world of so many on this earth is restricted to a 50 mile radius, and often much less, my parents and myself were blessed to get this 50 miles in the heart of Maine.