Rearview:

Lessons and Blessings From the Road

By the time this weekly Wednesday post finds its way into your inbox, our two weeks of Airstreaming in St. Augustine, Florida will be firmly in the rearview mirror. Weather permitting, we will have made it safely to Doswell, Virginia, after spending one night in Summerton, South Carolina.

These one-offs are a means to an end, the end being our final destination, and in this case, back to our vintage four-room cottage in Charlestown, Rhode Island. Because even when we’re not squeezed into a 125-square-foot travel trailer for a month, our 400-square-foot primary residence is no mansion.

Travel autopsies are best performed within a few days of completion. Consider this a quick inventory, a list to remind myself, now and in the future, of the lessons and blessings received.

What do I carry with me?

• The lingering taste of salted caramel praline ice cream from Lulabelle’s.

• The knowledge that you can make meatloaf on a gas grill.

• Enthusiasm for my new art studio.

• Anticipation at seeing my babies again, and their babies, soon.

• The lesson to always keep an extra set of camper keys in the tow vehicle.

• A brand-new electric bike for Todd to tool around on.

• Lenny Foster’s book, Enchanted Land: A Taos Twenty-Year Retrospective.

• The aroma of freshly baked bread and pastries at the local farmer’s market.

• Memories of three million tiny white lights bathing downtown St. Augustine during the Night of Lights.

• Fellowship and new friends at the Serenity Club on South Dixie Highway.

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  What do I release?

• Long lines of traffic and longer traffic lights.

• Urban sprawl.

• Tourist dollars spent at local eateries, an art gallery, one bike shop, and a $105 locksmith service call (thank you, Pop-A-Lock).

• Ash from countless campfires.

• Footprints in the sand.

• Uncertainty.

  Some things are meant to travel with us. Others are meant to stay behind, quietly proving they were never ours to carry.