70 Years Old Tomorrow and Memories

 Location: Heart of Haynesville RV Park (home base); Mansfield, Louisiana

As I enter my eighth decade of life, I’ve become a little more retrospective. Lately I’ve been thinking about and remembering people, places, things and ideas. Wow, that was an elementary school year flashback, using the definition of a noun. Oh well, I guess it fits in with my pensive mood lately.

At some point in my life, I went from spending most of my time looking forward and planning my future to looking backwards at my past and what was or what could have been. I’m guessing that break point is when you realize the days you have left are less than those you’ve already used. It becomes a combination of some regrets and some “patting myself on the back”. I don’t think I spent enough time just enjoying the present. That is a life lesson I learned too late. But dang, the present moves so fast and changes constantly. It doesn’t feel that way when living it daily, but when you stop and look, it just zips by you in a  hurry. One minute your children are crawling on the floor, the next you’re helping them with algebra at the dining room table. Turn around again and they are receiving their diploma at graduation before heading off to a life of their own. And that is the combined sad and happy thing, “a life of their own”.

I remember myself as a twenty-year-old planning a cross-country motorcycle trip. I’m about 99% sure I won’t be taking it now. That was a youthful dream. I bought the motorcycle and double checked my plans. The plan was to travel and explore the country during the day and sleep in wooded places alongside the road while using my motorcycle and a tarp as a windbreak/bedroll. There was no time limit on the plan, and I fully intended to do it until I either ran out of money or got bored. But then, like so many times, my plans changed when life got in the way. I sold the motorcycle within a year of buying it. With it being only a year old, it was a quick, albeit emotional sale. Notice I’ve held back 1% on the motorcycle trip because that is another life lesson I’ve learned, never say never and expect the unexpected.

I enlisted in the Navy when I was seventeen years old. That was back in the early seventies when the Vietnam War and Hippie movement were both winding down. Veterans were coming home and being spit on while being called “baby killers”. Active-duty military were encouraged not to wear their uniforms to avoid possible conflicts. Combine that social environment with Watergate and you get a mood that wasn’t very patriotic. Being realistic and looking back on it fifty years later, I know the reason for my enlistment was a combination of patriotism and a sense of adventure. Those four years reinforced the foundation of my life that my parents had started. Honor, truth and respect. Those life lessons have stayed with me to this day.

I stumbled on my first love while I was in the Navy. I was drowning in love and life was great. Then she showed her true colors and broke my heart. I like to believe that she felt guilty about deceiving me, but she probably knew I was wising up to what she was doing. So, after happily swimming in love for three whole months we went our separate ways, and I drowned in heart-break. I had been broken. I hadn’t yet learned another life lesson. When two people are in a loving relationship and one is “living a lie”, that lie only affects the other person when it becomes known. Prior to the lie becoming known, the person only knows the love of the relationship. Ignorance is truly bliss, until the truth is known. Of course, the truth was she was a cheater and a liar. I hope her son turned out to be a solid, well-adjusted man. I pointed him in the right direction, but our time was very short. The odds were against him though, due to the influence of his mother. Maybe she met a stronger man than me who helped turn her life around. Fingers crossed. *** Begin Post-edit. The boy was not mine. He was 3 years old when I met his mother. Someone pointed out the possible confusion in the original post. *** End Post-Edit

Those were just some of my thoughts about a part of my life. I read something the other day that applies here. "If we erase all of our regrets and mistakes in life, we ultimately erase ourselves". That's a bingo, come check my card. 

This blog has never been totally about traveling. I use it sometimes as a way to talk to my grandchildren in the future. Someday, maybe 30 years from now they will read the words I wrote on the day before my 70th birthday.

A blog post needs a picture. Tonight, there will be two oldies, but goodies but are applicable to the subject at hand.

A nice sunrise over the Gulf of America while parked on the beach. I was camped at Mustang Island State Park, near Corpus Christie, Texas. 

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean from a beach near Fort Stevens State Park Campground, Oregon. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.