Thirty Years, and Counting

There are few people on this planet I’d want to travel with for eights weeks holed up in a 7 x 10-foot camper.

Ok. There is no one I’d choose to do that with. I don’t think I’d be sane for more than a week in such conditions 🙂

With the exception of one person: my high school sweetheart and bride of 30 years, Wendy. That one fact speaks volumes about our compatibility, and how we have survived and thrived in thirty years of life stuff together.

In 2008 we took a 2-month sabbatical and hit the road in our Toyota Tundra outfitted with a tiny Four Wheel Pop-up Truck Camper, making a loop around America starting from our home near Seattle, WA.

Camping in our pop-up truck camper overlooking the Upper Mississippi Valley

We headed south through Yosemite, desert poppy blooms, the Grand Canyon, and the tasty red & green chile dishes of New Mexico. We made our way east through sublime Texas hill country, lush green Arkansas hills, and legendary Great Smoky Mountain National Park (accompanied by piles of mouth-watering barbecue along the route).

The waterfalls of Yosemite National Park were our first scenic stop

Wildflowers in the Texas hill country were a colorful highlight of our road trip

Turning north we discovered the intimate and peaceful splendor of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the colonial history scattered all over Virginia and magically preserved Williamsburg, and the varied wildlife and Atlantic beaches of Assateague Island National Seashore.

The old Methodist church in idyllic Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountain N.P.

Dogwood and fresh spring greens decorate a foggy forest on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Westward we drove, seemingly back in time through Pennsylvania Amish country, to the shores of Lake Superior, up the Mississippi River Valley in Iowa and Wisconsin, through picturesque Minnesota forests and other-wordly Dakota badlands, and finally to the glory of Yellowstone.

As we gawked at the Amish in Pennsylvania, the Amish sheep gawked at us

The 1891 Dubuque, Iowa courthouse is a historical gem

The memories from this adventure are among the very best of my life so far. The photographs from that trip I share today are a tribute to that fantastic time, to the extravagant beauty that is our America.

But more importantly, these memories and images are a tribute to our 30th wedding anniversary that we celebrate this weekend. They are a tribute to my life partner, Wendy. Her grace, her wisdom, her steadfastness. Her beauty that begins outwardly and then keeps on going deep into her spirit. When folks wonder how we made it to thirty years of marriage and counting, I just point to her!

Most days I thank God for the small blessings I get to enjoy, whether it’s the taste explosion of morning bacon, an afternoon bike ride amid lush Florida beauty, or settling in with a fine adult beverage in the evening. But when I thank the Creator for this amazing woman my wife is, I’m talking about a blessing that far eclipses all other things. Wendy is THE blessing for me in this life. All else pales next to knowing her, loving her, sharing this joy-pain-laughter life adventure with her.

She is my great love.

As we celebrate our three decades of marriage this weekend, I’ll be dreaming of the next opportunity to hole up in a tiny camper again (ok, perhaps a more spacious trailer this time) with my very best friend and lover and continue our explorations of America together…

Seemingly endless ridges are layered at sunset at Grand Canyon National Park