Navigation

When Mistah Schleckah and I drive around, I'm the Navigator.

During our years on the road, I did my share of driving, of course I did. But then -- and now -- when we're driving in a city, or planning a route, or trying to work our way through, say, New Mexico, Mistah is in the driver's seat and I'm in the passenger's, with the map in my lap, telling him exactly what to do.

And, during those travels years, when we arrived at a destination, I'd get out the map and my journal and calendar and note exactly which route we took, and where we were staying, and look at the routes for the next day.

There are many photos of me from those years looking like this:

. . . in Fort Peck, Montana (following Lewis & Clark's trail) . . .

. . . and this, in California's Anza-Borrego Desert.

I love to Navigate. And if I do say so myself, (and I do, oh I do). I'm good at it.

One of my New Year's Resolutions -- one of my many many New Year's Resolutions -- is to get our photo albums up to date.

Here are some of them . . .

. . . here are the rest of them.

During our years on the road, we kept those albums meticulously current and organized and accurate, but totally dropped the ball when we arrived in Connecticut. We're a year and a half behind in printing photos and inserting them into albums, and even further behind in labeling them.

And labeling them is my job.

The other night as I was diligently at work labeling, reliving the Spring of 2008 as I was doing so, I looked at my set-up on the table:

. . . and realized it was exactly the same set-up I've had at campgrounds all over this fair country. To label the albums, I had to use the the map, of course, but also my journal and calendar, which report where we drove and what we did that day, and where we slept that night. And also how much the campground cost, what we had for dinner, what we did for exercise, and how much money we spent.

We have very meticulous records.

Ours is a well-documented life.

And it's a good thing too, because how would I ever have remembered that, driving east through The Lone Star state in May 2008, we stayed at Lake Arrowhead State Park in Henrietta TX, if I hadn't written it down?

I know what roads we took to get to Henrietta . . .

I know we stayed San Angelo State Park the night before and Beaver's Bend State Park in Broken Bow, OK the next night. . .

. . . and I know exactly what we did that day, May 17, 2008, the day we arrived at Lake Arrowhead. (We drank wine and made pasta broccoli).

Because I'm the Navigator.

A Navigator, after all, doesn't just tell you which way to turn the wheel. A Navigator also makes obsessive meticulous notes of the navigated journey, so future successful Navigation is possible.

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And that future journey may be navigated through Arizona, or through Texas, or through Florida.

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Or on the dining room table.