We embarked on a four thousand five hundred mile round trip journey early one August morning. Knowing our limits for sitting inside a car we broke the trip down into five hundred mile increments. Our final destination lay far up the east coast in Maine where we had long ago traveled with our friends, Egon and Marita. Later we would begin a return trip that would lead us to the site of our honeymoon but first our goal was to reach Maine like we had done before with our friends.

On that trip we rode along the eastern coast ultimately ending up in Falmouth just outside of Portland where we visited Egon’s uncle who also happened to be my husband Mike’s favorite professor from college. Even though Dr. Monsen had long before moved from the University of Houston, he and Mike kept in touch via quick phone calls on special occasions and by exchanging Christmas cards and letters each year. It was fun to think that we would actually get to sit with Dr. Monsen and his wife in their quaint New England home near a small lake. We already knew from past encounters how entertaining and enlightening Dr. Monsen would be. Listening to him was like taking a mini course in sociology and life. 

On that long trip with Egon and Marita we indeed had a wonderful time eating lobster rolls from Town Landing and viewing the local sights. Of course we also took a side trip to the LL Beene store in Freeport and marveled at the loveliness of Bar Harbor. I started a Christmas ornament moose collection as well. The truth is that the visit with Dr. Monsen was still the highlight.

Our recent trip was very different. Egon and Marita are gone and so is Dr. Monsen. Retracing the epic vacation of long ago has reminded me of how much fun we had with these three remarkable people. All of them were brilliant, so conversations were rarely shallow. I did more listening than talking when I was with them because I have always enjoyed learning from people who have had unusual experiences. 

Egon from was Bremen, Germany. His mother and father met during World War II when his father was stationed in Norway after Germany invaded that country. To say that he was and his fellow soldiers were disliked would be an understatement and yet love bloomed between him and Egon’s mother who was a Norwegian from a family that was very active in the resistance movement. While her brothers were doing everything possible to wreak havoc for the Germans, she was secretly falling in love with “the enemy.”

When the war ended the two lovers married and moved to Bremen were Egon was born. He often told us about his boyhood adventures in the rubble of the bombed out buildings in his town. He would grow up with a multicultural background that left him speaking many languages with pitch perfect  pronunciation. He ended up coming to the United States and into our world when his Uncle Henry  Monsen suggested that Egon join him to study at the University of Houston. It was Dr. Monsen who introduced Mike to the young man who would like a brother to both of us. 

Eventually Mike and Egon enrolled in graduate school together and met a young woman from Chicago named Marita. She always joked that she sized up the two of them, thought they both looked quite handsome, but realized that Mike was wearing a wedding ring which put him out of contention for her heart. Soon a new love story began with the girl from Oak Park and the guy who mostly thought of himself as a Viking. 

Mike and I were fortunate to call them both our friends and also to spend hours being intellectually entertained by Dr. Monsen who had found his way to Houston by way of universities in Florida, California and Texas where he earned a PhD in Sociology. Along the way he had met a girl from New York City who would prove to be his equal and a devoted helpmate. Houston was too hot for a Norwegian, so when the University of Maine had an opening he applied and left for the kind of climate that he adored. It was as close to Norway as he was ever going to get.

This time around we were journeying with a different purpose. We had a job to do moving our granddaughter to new digs for another year of college. When she reached out for assistance we jumped at the opportunity to travel again, something that we have been unable to do for a year now. Finally we felt comfortable leaving Mike’s father under the watchful eyes of our daughter. We knew that we might be gone for two weeks and he would still be in good hands. 

I suppose that all of us have needed this vacation. I looked forward to all that we would see on the long journey. Getting close to the people and places in our nation ons is always a valuable experience. I’ll be posting my a chronology of how we rocked along. There was so much to see along the way.