Today, Friday, May 24, marks the unofficial start of the summer. Memorial Day on Monday gives everyone a nice long weekend to enjoy. On the National Day Calendar (yes, there is such a thing) today is National Road Trip Day, National Cooler Day, and National Don’t Fry Day. How convenient they all are so interrelated.
What is a “road trip”? It’s a leave-your-cares-behind dash to someplace you’ve never been before or to a place where you always have a good time when you go! Growing up, I did not make many road trips for fun. Dad was in the Air Force, so our trips were out of necessity. I think of the time we took the ferry back from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia. It was early spring and beautiful. I did not know that I would eventually settle in Louisiana, just like the Acadians of Nova Scotia. While at Northwestern State University in 1970, I took a road trip to Leesville with a guy in Bossier Dorm named Jerry. He was from Pitkin. My first college road trip was to Leesville! The next weekend we hopped in my car and went to Alexandria; also my first time there. Probably more memorable for me than Jerry from Pitkin!
The Publisher and Editor of the Vernon Parish Journal love to travel. In our over 25 years together we have been fortunate to visit NYNY, Chicago, San Francisco, NOLA, Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta, Kansas City, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Savannah, and Santa Fe, to name a few. We have never had a bad time … well, maybe Santa Fe, but it got better!!
My wife’s family’s road trip experiences are vaster than mine because her parents liked to go places and do things. When your father is the only bail bondsman in the town next to a military base with 20,000 kids training to go to Vietnam, you may need to run away at times. A train ride to Mansfield or Beaumont, a car trip to see family, or a surprise destination were up next. They were a going family that made lots of good memories on their road trips.
Take a road trip…plan it or not! Go see America. It’s a great place!
When you take that trip, you might need a cooler for drinks and snacks. Whatever happened to 88-cent styrofoam coolers?? They’re $6.50 now! People tend to hang on to coolers they like. We have a large soft sided cooler from Trader Joe’s that goes on every road trip. You never know what you might want to bring home. We should all be so lucky to have a Yeti or some such high-tech polymer influenced, hard plastic gizmo that keeps drinks teeth rattling cold! You might want to check the price tag on that cooler! When you see a cooler marked Bear Proof, you can bet that cooler earned it! To earn that designation, newly-designed coolers are given by U.S. Park Rangers to a pen of bears. If the cooler is still unopened when the bears are done trying to open it, you earn that label for your product. Look for the CBS Sunday Morning clip online and see how smart and clever bears are! Remember Yogi and BooBoo always got their pic-a-nic basket.
Today is National Don’t Fry Day. Now that’s not what you might think. You can have a fish sandwich–just don’t fry your body in the sun. Is there anything more painful to your skin than a sunburn? Ultraviolet rays and overexposure to the sun lead to skin cancers that can kill. When you spend time outdoors this summer, make sure kids and adults are protected with good lotions and sprays to minimize the damage. Since this is the unofficial start of the summer, it’s a good time to remind you! The worst case of sunburn I ever witnessed was on a trip to Dallas with some buddies. Lenny and I played tennis for about two hours. Gary passed out face first at the pool. It was not a pretty sight. He was so burned he had to lean forward in the truck on the way back to Leesville. OUCH! We have all been guilty of getting sunburned at some point in our lives. It is almost a learning moment for us…when we realize we do not want that to happen again! My wife had a not-so-pretty burn on her mid-section from Florida sun when she was 15; never forgot it and has never done it again (not even the two-piece suit)! There are lots of remedies for sunburn. I lean toward aloe vera. Here’s hoping you avoid a burn this season.
So, if you take a road trip this weekend, make it count! Make sure you have a good cooler and plenty of goop or lotion to keep Ms. Sun at bay. Happy long weekend! May you take a moment and reflect on what Memorial Day means to our country.