Doug and I had just parked our car in a beautiful little state park full of redwood trees in Northern California.  As we started walking to the path to begin our exploration, we noticed an older lady instructing her husband as to how to park the car.  She got out of the car and started insisting that he pull up another foot or two, stating emphatically that the car needed to stop in a certain place.  After she successfully finished her instructions, she spotted us and asked if we had been there before and introduced herself, explaining she was a docent in the park and was there for a meeting.  This meeting did not stop her from giving us the tour highlights from where we were standing nor did it stop her from yelling at three kids who were obviously riding their bikes in an area they weren’t supposed to.  It also didn’t stop her from loudly passing gas several times during our conversation.  Straight faces and all we left this sweet lady and took the path.  It wasn’t until we got back to our car that I turned to Doug and asked, did that lady pass gas while we were talking to her?  During the hysterical laughter that followed, we were trying to decide if she couldn’t hear it, feel it, or if she just didn’t care.  Now just imagine, if we had read up on this place beforehand and told her no thanks when she offered to help, we wouldn’t have that story to tell!

I’m one of those people who likes to go to concerts and just listen before I read about it because I don’t want someone else to tell me what I should be listening for.  I can read about it after I have formed an opinion on my own or if I have questions and I’m completely satisfied that way.  That’s kind of the way our vacation went, and while not all of our experiences turned out to be as odd as the previous story, it was refreshing to experience things from an ignorant perspective.  So here are some things we learned while taking the ignorant approach.

• Every small town in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming seems to put the first letter of their name up on a mountain somewhere.  We decided to look up Battle Mountain Nevada because of the BM on the mountain and found out that in 2001, the New York Times named it the “armpit of America”, which lead to the annual Armpit Festival. Seriously.
• The mascot of Beaver Utah is… the Beavers!
• Wanting to see what kind of wildlife is around might actually bring you face to face with some.  Like coming up on a mama deer and her two babies on a forest path or nearly colliding with a coyote going 80 mph on a freeway.
• Holding your breath the entire length of the Eisenhower Tunnel is not possible.
• Birds and sea lions can show you the way to humpback whales if you’re patient.
• There are a lot of great white sharks close to the California shore. (Cue Jaws music).
• Peters Bakery in San Jose has been around for 81 years and there’s definitely a reason for it.
• People with an extreme gene are fascinating. Rock climbing up sheer rock faces alongside the highway and surfers catching waves in small coves at sunset are amazing to watch.
• Garlic is grown around Gilroy, California and you can smell it EVERYWHERE.
• Google can answer questions about strange red lights or little red brick buildings dotted along the highway.
• The scenery is magnificent and getting off the beaten path (or lost) allows you to discover sights you never imagined.

You know, it’s not like I’ve never traveled before, but recently it involves going through security at an airport and not talking to the person next to you for several hours.  This trip opened my eyes to just how nice and kind people can be.  Like the fun group of kids shooting a silly video of a squirrel along the trail in Zion or the two young French girls who offered up their seats for us on the shuttle.  The young man at the hotel who took the time to walk with us out the door to point out the way to a late night local pizza joint to walk to or the guy in the restaurant who gave Doug free milk every night to go with his snack.  The people in line who took the time to take pictures for each other in front of the General Sherman Sequoia.  People who stopped what they were doing to converse or share or help, from fancy shops on Santana Row, to rangers at the national parks, to clerks at small convenience stores in the middle of nowhere.  We discovered that not only is this an amazing country to see, but it’s an amazing country of people who get up every morning, work hard and do their best to be kind to each other.  It’s a country that brings in people from all over the world so that we can share the wonders together.  We couldn’t speak any of the other languages we heard but through their eyes, their smiles and their laughter, we didn’t need to.

I’m not saying you have to get in the car and just see where it takes you (although I have some acquaintances who have done that), but maybe try to unstructure yourself a little bit, explore some new things, try out the local fare and see America through the eyes of its people.  So, despite the things I see and hear in the news, I have a renewed faith in the people of this country and new hope for its future because I believe I’ve experienced it from a more ignorant perspective.