Thirty four years and about 3 hours ago a fantastic journey began when Beth walked down the aisle of First Baptist Church of Mulberry, didn't change her mind at the last minute and said "I do". As we often do on this day we were replaying the big event and laughing at the simplicity of weddings back then compared to nowadays. It was a quick afternoon service, Beth had two attendants her sister Cindy and her best friend Lori. I had my brother, Gerald and one of my best friends Drew who just a little over six months earlier had married Cindy. After being pronounced "Husband and Wife" by Rev. David Bump it was off to the church social room for cake, punch, nuts and mints. No sit down dinner required or expected back then!
We weren't "the traveling idiots" back then or at least Nana hadn't publically and proudly proclaimed us as such. But wow, in my wildest imagination I could have never believed how lucky I was to have such an amazing life partner!
I guess from day one we were destined to one day become the traveling idiots. We had saved spare change and a few bucks here and there while in college and splurged on a honeymoon to Denver, Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This was a little over the top for folks from the dusty little one red light town of Mulberry.
I remember us getting excited when we first spotted some type of deer on the side of the road. We stopped and took pictures like true tourists, only later as we continued up the road did we realize that over the next week or so we'd probably see about a billion of these critters.
After the honeymoon we loaded up the smallest U-Haul trailer known to man and moved to Burlington, North Carolina. Beth completed her masters degree at UNC-Greensboro while I taught and coached at Burlington-Cummings High School. We were ridiculously poor back then. I mean take the calculator to the grocery store poor and steal the newspaper from the mall door before it opened at noon on Sunday poor. As poor as we were we still enjoyed adventures and often went to the mountains or coast where we'd usually have to sit through some 90 minute timeshare presentation just to get a hotel at a cost we could afford. We also took advantage of a short lived discount airline called People's Express which offered cheap flights to New York. God knows we couldn't have afforded a hotel in New York so we'd take the early flight up and the last flight home.............we were big time travelers!
After three years Beth had graduated, worked a bit and we were ready to move on. Here's another interesting but little known part of the journey. Nana was instrumental in my career. Keep in mind back in the early 90's things were a little different and you looked for jobs in the newspaper (remember when they were relevant?) Nana found and mailed me an ad from Medical Center Hospital in Punta Gorda which was opening a new Wellness Program. I was fortunate enough to get a position and we were off to Florida in an ever so slightly larger U-Haul.
Seven years in Florida and the birth of two amazing children, first Ben and then Sarah and we were off to Texas where we really earned the reputation of the "traveling idiots". DFW airport was close and became our gateway across the country and to all corners of the world.
I'm so fortunate to be married to one of the most "live life to the fullest" people I know. She has been a rock of support through good days and challenging days and really opened my eyes to so many incredible adventures. I remember one day saying in passing that Iceland looked interesting and the next thing I knew we were booked to Iceland. One day I got a call at work and Beth asked me what I thought about going to Hong Kong, I said when and she said there were some great deals in four days. Thanks to an incredibly understanding boss who was amused by all of this four days later the Tucker family was off to Hong Kong. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, South America, China, Europe and more...........Nana couldn't have been more accurate in naming us.
While travel may not be everyone's cup of tea, the lesson that Beth has taught me so well is that you can go through life or you can live life. Beth has pushed, encouraged and supported me to step out of my comfort zone and I am so blessed and fortunate.
This little blog is intended to document our journey for our amusement as well as the amusement of anyone who wants to read it but I also hope that it will serve as an inspiration for others to find their passion and make dreams a reality and oh by the way, don't wait, the future is not guaranteed!
It's hard to believe that it's been 34 years, time does fly when you're having a great time!
