Our coming vacation, and a look at the past.

It is easy, as we age, to fall into patterns. The comfort of routine provides a haven as worries about the struggles of aging are realized. It becomes tonic to find something pleasant and just let it wash over us. A cocoon of the familiar, wrap yourself in the cozy experiences you have lived before. Restful, peaceful and safe.

My wife is a little crazy, though, she thinks we should try new things, take a few chances, gamble a little on the unknown. And she is right. We spent years going back to visit our mothers, and when they passed away we have barely gone to the same place on vacation twice.

Last year we went kayaking on Lake Superior, the biggest lake of the Great Lakes. We took a kayak and a canoe and paddled around on the lake that never gives up her dead. Due to a last minute cancellation we had a huge cabin all to ourselves, and we found that we still like each other, after all these years, we are still friends. In fact, best friends. And we decided vacations alone are the way to go. 

So we have done some exploring. A friend of mine told me about a hidden gem in southern Ohio. Lake Hope, we rented a cabin, spent a long weekend kayaking, grilling, hiking, exploring the beauty of our state. It was illuminating. 

Since that was such a success we branched out, two weeks ago we went to Shawnee State Park.  We spent four days exploring the park, Portsmouth, small parts of Kentucky, Wayne National Forest. It was too cold to kayak, but there are two lakes just perfect for that. And we will go back.

Since we have no real plans for vacation this summer, and we have had such good luck with state parks we have decided to make that our plan. A week in a state park cabin. But, we decided to try something a little different, of course, my wife is crazy after all. Two years ago we vacationed in Holden Beach NC, a small haven on the eastern seaboard. To get there we had to drive through West Virginia. A rugged state, filled with majestic beauty. Deep caverns looking up at forest covered mountains that seem to climb straight up to the sky. When we drove through there were mists clinging to the mountain sides, haloing the tops and covering the valleys, it was beautiful. I am keenly fond of mountains. And it is only about five hours away.

Since it is right next to Ohio we decided to try it. We found several state parks with cabins and lakes made for kayaking. So, we are off. In June, sometime we are headed to WV to relax, kayak, and check out the area. I am excited to try something new, new sights, new places, a chance to immerse ourselves in different cultures, foods, and scenery. 

With that in mind I decided we needed a travel mascot. This little guy was trapped on a window in Portsmouth, and we liberated him.  He is traveling with us from now on.

Of course we still have the Traveling Sunnies show, thanks to Trina Emmerson.  

And, if you have been paying attention I am dedicated to making videos of all our trips, and we need a good introduction. So, this morning I spent a ridiculous amount of time making this opening. I borrowed most of it from the Grateful Dead movie, because I love the Grateful Dead. 

 

I remember one empty night in a cheap motel in Kansas, run down after a long day of construction work on a farm where they raised swine. We were building a new barn. I smelled even after the shower, I stunk for days afterward. Years later I still remember that smell. I was sore from toting heavy crap through the mud and offal. It was a very bleak night, and I was questioning the decisions I had made to get there.

Flipping through the channel there was an Uncle Sam Skeleton riding a chopper through a wild cartoon scene. I lit a joint and watched the movie and life was ok for awhile.  I still love that movie. The next day was awful, as was every day until we finished that small building in that smelly, muddy place, but for one evening, in one dumpy little room life seemed ok. 

Here is my intro video.

A look back and a look forward, they look so similar.

A Look Back;

In keeping with the politically free theme, and our #MakeAmericaDeadAgain movement we have decided to study human needs, mostly the need for power. The need for power beyond 

And, if you want to talk about power a great place to start is the ancient Assyrians. They had some power, and were uninhibited as all hell about its use and potential. 

According to historian Will Durant;

"If we should admit the imperial principle – that it is good, for the sake of spreading law, security, commerce and peace, that many states should be brought, by persuasion or force, under the authority of one government – then we should have to concede to Assyria the distinction of having established in western Asia a larger measure and area of order and prosperity than that region of the earth had ever, to our knowledge, enjoyed before."

Of course, that kind of peace and security come with a price. In the case of Babylon the cost was absolute destruction. According to Sennacherib, King of Assyria 705 to 681 bce. Here is how security was achieved in Babylon;

 “I levelled the city and its houses from the foundations to the top, I destroyed them, and I consumed them with fire. I tore down and removed the outer and inner walls, the temples and ziggurats built of brick, and dumped the rubble in the Arahtu canal. And after I destroyed Babylon, smashed its gods and massacred its population, I tore up its soil and threw it into the Euphrates so that it was carried by the river down to the sea.”

A Look At Today;

 It isn’t much different than what is happening in Syria today, I guess. It was much more difficult and required a lot more labor, but the results are more or less the same.  But, what happened to Babylon took place a long time ago, and the crisis in Syria is so far away. And I was never very good at history, or geography.

Looking at the world today makes me wish I would have paid more attention to both, though. And it certainly makes me wish world leaders would have learned a little more from the past. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, right? Only when they repeat it with today’s arms and abilities the whole world will end up like Babylon, or Jerusalem, or Carthage.

Oddly enough, (or maybe not odd at all) they always had a reason for every barbarous act of annihilation. Today, they are just interesting bits of information on Google. Nobody ever thinks, "man we haven’t changed," we still find a reason, and still pretend it makes sense.

#MakeAmericaDeadAgain

I think we will end with some more Grateful Dead today;

“If the game is lost then we're all the same
No one left to place or take the blame
We will leave this place an empty stone
Or that shining ball of blue we can call our home”