In March of this year, at a Kmart in Petaluma, California, I bought my friend Amy her very first road atlas. She’s 45, and we had talked about her upcoming six-week sabbatical from her job, and how it might just be time for a fuck-it-I’m-just-going-to-drive-around road trip in August, starting in California, maybe going north to Oregon, and then, well, who knows, just gotta be back in the office six weeks later.
Amy’s raised two kids who survived to graduate college and get jobs, stayed married to a hilarious rad guy who co-raised those two kids, climbed a whole bunch of big mountains, and juggled an impressive career. She hasn’t ever gone on a big road trip, and I guess it’s time.
Lots of us, when we see a guy in his 40s or 50s driving a convertible with the top down, assume the man is having what we’ve come to describe as a “mid-life crisis,” a sort of reassessment of life goals or dreams we have when we realize we’re not going to live forever. There are of course other things people do besides buying convertibles—drink more, start relationships with younger men and women, or buy flashy clothes.
We’ve now coined the “quarter-life crisis,” and someone’s even written about the “three-quarter-life crisis,” but really, I think all we’re saying is everybody gets a little lost sometimes, no matter what age. And maybe you do some stuff you’ve never done before but always wanted to.
My dad has been talking about Alaska in a reverent, curious manner for years now, and has tried to line up a group trip with friends and family, never quite getting it to work out. He and I talked about it like Emile Hirsch and Vince Vaughn did in Into The Wild (“society!”), as if it were some sort of dreamland. Well, I guess it is.
This spring, my parents started talking about doing a 500-mile bike tour in Alaska with a tour company. Then my dad started eating better and dropping a bunch of weight—something that had kept him from doing a few things in the past couple years. And suddenly he and my mom were doing 50-mile, then 70-mile bike rides on the weekends, and 30-mile bike rides after their 10-hour days at work, all so they’d be ready for all the long consecutive days of riding in Alaska. And so they wouldn’t be too tired to take out their cameras and get some shots of Alaska’s nature-on-steroids scenery.
Tomorrow, my parents will get onto a plane to fly to Anchorage, and I might be more excited than my dad is. I told him at the end of their week in Alaska, he’s going to get on that plane back to the Lower 48 and he’ll already be planning his next trip up there. Maybe it’s all part of his three-quarter-life crisis, or some sort of just-before-retirement crisis, or something else we can come up with a catchy label for. Whatever it is, I hope it keeps happening.
-Brendan
It’s time. Thanks for inspiring the inner dirtbag in all of us my friend. (From a coffe shop somewhere in Wyoming) <3
The trick, I think, is to have your crisis early enough so that you have lots of time to enjoy the new you
As an Alaskan, GOOD FOR YOUR PARENTS!!! That is so rad!! Do you know where all are they going?
Does my heart good to know that people still by an Atlas for a road trip. I figured it had all gone GPS by now.
Great to hear your parents are going to Alaska!
I’m from Alaska and I say good for your parents (and everyone else no matter what their age)! Alaska is RAD, no semi-about it. Hope they enjoy the ride and see tons of wildlife.
PS: Best place to eat in A-town is The Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria. 🙂
I second Moose’s Tooth!!
I love that your parents are doing this. I’m grinning like an idiot and loving the thought.
Yesterday I bought a van to drive around Australia. My friends think I’m a bit of a wild man for doing it, but funnily enough, you put it out there and people want to get involved – I don’t think I’ll be short of a travel buddy or two.
It’s never too late (or too early) to embrace your inner dirtbag/adventurer, however you choose to define that.
Thanks for another great tale.
I have the Nat Geo road atlas tucked behind my seat. Very useful and you never know when it will come in handy!
I think your parents and mine are very similar. My parents went to Alaska for the first time about 10 years ago, and have since been back 2 more times (each time bringing new friends/family with them). Like the experience was so amazing they must share it with everyone.
Dirtbag? Hobo? What’s the difference. Fact of the matter is, that everyone has an inner Hobe just waiting to get out.
Good writin’…
I’m more of a map than a GPS sort. Probably because my Dad was an actual mapmaker. Nothing like an atlas to get the big picture of a trip (also, the battery never dies). I had my early mid-life at 40 when I learned to inline skate and started a business. I figure at 59 I am in my mid-mid-life. Went paleo and fixed up an MTB top crash around trails. Maybe Alaska is for the late-mid-life event. Still don’t have that convertible.
I’m suffering a post tenure-crisis. Thanks for the great posts!