Travel Mates
For those of you who don’t know, John’s my buddy from the military, and definitely the guy I go to when I want information about Russia, and now, what they’re doing in Ukraine. He definitely keeps up with what’s going on and he knows his stuff. He’s also a really great traveler. I know that from our Army days. To give but one example, on one of our BYU Russian language refresher trips, his unit gave him a rental car. So I brought my 4x5 on the plane (wooden tripod in a duffle bag), and on the weekend that the two weeks of language training straddled, we drove down from Provo to the Moab area to do some photography. Being rugged soldiers, when picking between having a good dinner (at what wound up being an excellent German restaurant) and sleeping in a hotel, we opted for the good meal and crashing in the car for the night near Canyonlands to save a few bucks. I still have a contact print from a photograph I made the next morning sitting on my book shelf.
Oh yeah, and while we were hiking in Arches during that trip, I came across a scene that I needed to photograph (it was a “hike” so I’d left my camera behind). John was more than game to fast-march back the mile or to get the 4x5, and he even carried the tripod back (at a fast-march). Beautiful image that was. We even managed to make it back and get set up (on a big rock to boot) to make the image just before shadows cut through the slot. John the sherpa! And, I went out of my way to visit John in on both of my cross-country drives in the ’90’s. When he was in Las Vegas with in-laws, I swung by Las Vegas. Naturally he was with me outside of Las Vegas when I broke an ankle hiking (thought it was a sprain) when some rocks collapsed underfoot on New Year’s eve 1998. We’ve been through a lot together. As our old First Sergeant used to say, “Nothing’s too good for you Paradice!”
So really, I had no worries that John and I would travel well. As Ann said, “It’s something when the two of you get going.” That still left the question whether it would work with the four of us. But it just goes to show you don’t always need to listen to that little voice in the back of your head.
Now, I’m not the best of people photographers (I never quite think of taking them) so we have Ann to thank for these photos.
And I’m showing them simply because John and Judy were such good travel mates I couldn’t not do a post on them. Judy, like John, is great. She doesn’t let anything ruffle her on vacation (she knows it never really works out the way you think it will, and that’s ok!).
And as I wrote in the blog post, Judy was the planner for Ireland. I don’t think a single place she suggested we visit wasn’t worth the time we spent there.
And well, John was John, with his usual running commentary and talking with just about anyone who will speak with us. And John’s family is from the Netherlands (you couldn’t tell from his height though), and like any good Dutchman, he loves cracking jokes whenever he gets the chance.
If you’ve ever heard me say that I have a friend who says, “Life is nothing but a bunch of stories, and whoever has the best stories in the end wins.” Well, that friend is John. Let me share a story from our trip . . . [WARNING: The next paragraph is not suitable for work, prudes or people who don’t have a sense of humor. If that’s you, just skip the next paragraph]
At one of the pubs we were at in Ireland, John had to visit the loo. When he came back he had this massive grin on his face. “Bud, what’s up?” I said laughing, knowing something was up. John replied, “Man, I thought I was gonna die in there. A bunch of guys came in to the bathroom, obviously having had a few too many already. We’re standing there, doing our thing and one guy says to the other, “Nice cock!” The other guy replies “uhhhh . . . Thanks?” “. . . You do know they make them in large don’t you?” John said, “My god, I started laughing so hard it was everything I could do not to piss all over the wall.” Did I tell you John has a Georgia accent? The state, not the country.
Like I said, stories. I suspect John will come out the winner.
So yeah, we had a grand time the two weeks we spent together. Definitely good travel mates.
And thank you Ann for the photos. Though the one that included the Elberg Village Idiot is pretty strange.
So we’ll put the Paradices on the “easy to travel with” list just in case we can figure out how to conjure up another road trip together.