Two of the most memorable, happiest times EVER with my mom were a Mother’s Day hike we did together at Difficult Run Trail in Great Falls National Park (1990), and a five-day road trip from Tempe, AZ to Columbia, MO (May, 2002).
The Great Falls hike was not too long, maybe a mile, but it was just so special. It was a peaceful trail along a clear stream. It was a sunny, warm, breezy day. The hike ended at a deep pool where the stream entered the Potomac River. We brought a picnic and laughed a lot. I remember talking with mom about geology. That day with her and that place were so special that I returned by myself a few years later to collect a bunch of large rocks from the stream that I arranged into a rock garden in the patio of her condo in Shirlington. These rocks were then moved to Lee and Carole’s house in DC, where they rest today, in the lower level of their beautiful garden. Years later, with the arrival of grandkids, I think she called the rock garden there the ‘grandkids garden.’
On our ‘roadtrip extraordinaire’ as we referred to it, my mom and I enjoyed short day hikes in Sedona (in a beautiful canyon that involved crossing a stream and getting our feet wet) and Wupatki Ruins in AZ (she loved the Indian ruins here; she bought me a tee-shirt there that I still wear!), toured the Painted Desert (where we drove right through a dust devil), stood together at the Four Corners site (where it was super windy), visited the Anasazi Visitors Center in Montrose, CO (where she bought Ute Indian jewelry), hiked a section of the 'slickrock' trail in Moab, UT (see image - one of my favorites!), stayed in a hotel in Telluride (where she didn’t sleep much at all because of the altitude), drove across South Park in Colorado (where we stopped and watched buffalo graze), and drove by Pikes Peak (where she recalled stories from a roadtrip she took there from Missouri with her parents and siblings in the 1950s). Last, we made our way across Kansas and into Columbia. We were in my 1989 Buick Le Sabre (donated to me from my dad), with no air conditioning, which made the trip more memorable (especially the Arizona section)!
For years and years, we often talked about these two events, because they were so special. We shared so many laughs and made so many memories!
Brandon, 2/28/2016
