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| Grampa |
I went down to the lake late in the day and visited with Grampa and Grama. Grampa was in an exceptionally cheery mood today. He "had his talkers on" as Grama would say. It seems every time I visit he has seen something or someone really out of the ordinary and tells me, he thinks I could or should do the same thing. Today's story was about a man on a horse that was "pulled over" by a police officer outside of the restaurant they were eating at earlier in the week. Apparently this guy was travelling to Missouri on horseback. He was clean and friendly and had a sleeping bag with him. That was just the way he was travelling. When Grampa finished telling me about it, he said, "I told your grandma, if Ashley had a horse she'd be doing that too." He went on to tell me how I could make it work and find places to sleep.
I realized something after listening to yet another crazy story of something he believes I could or would do. He is the reason I am the way I am. He is the reason I dream so big and dare to be adventurous The first time I remember him flat out telling me to do something crazy was in 2004. After an extremely harsh breakup with the man I was engaged to at the time, Grampa told me I should go get on my motorcycle and just take a trip by myself. Just get away for a while.
I didn't end up taking the motorcycle, but I did get in the car and just start driving. I remember trying to decide if I should head north, south, east or west. Anyone who knows me wouldn't be surprised to find out that I decided to head south. About 4 hours into my trip my cell phone rang. It was my mom wanting to know if I wanted to get some lunch. I told her I couldn't because I was in Terre Haute, Indiana (I lived in the northwest suburbs of Chicago at the time). She flipped out (of course) and I told her she should talk to Grampa and ask him what I was up to. :-)
I was on the road for around 5 or 6 days. I went all sorts of places in 6 different states, including Graceland in Memphis, TN. It was the first time in my life I'd really done something all on my own. I remember the day I was supposed to get married. Instead, I was sitting out on the steps of the run down motel I was staying at in Memphis and smoking a cigarette (yes, I used to be a smoker) and I met two middle aged women and had a great conversation with them that really helped change my perspective. I don't really remember what they told me, but I remember them and how powerful the experience was of meeting them.
Side note: My love for Elvis movies was born in that hotel. Channel 3 had Elvis movies 24 hours a day. I discovered it very late at night and "Frankie and Johnny" had just started. I was exhausted, but couldn't turn it off. I stayed up almost all night watching one movie after another.
Also on that trip, I remember getting caught very near to a tornado. I met a family in a restaurant parking lot where I pulled over. It was the only thing for many miles. I'm not sure how far it would have been to a town. The restaurant was in a modular building, so it would provide no safe haven from the storm. The family was in a pickup truck and was pulling a trailer with a bunch of quads on it. There were three younger boys riding in the trailer between the quads because there was no room in the cab of the truck. They were getting pelted with the hail, rain and wind. I've never again seen a sky like I did that day. I have some great pictures of it somewhere. Anyway, I got out of my car and went up to the parents to offer their boys shelter in my car. I think they thought I was crazy, but they let them get in. We knew, of course, if the tornado dropped near us we'd have to make a run for the ditch, but at least the boys got out of the storm. Those boys were soaked, but so thankful to come in out of the storm. I had beach towels in the car too so they got to dry off a bit.
That whole trip was like a mission to conquer the world for me. To find my inner strength. To prove to myself that I could survive just fine on my own. Grampa believed I could do it. That was all I needed to believe it too. This all took place before Grampa and I were as extremely close as we are now. That was where it all began.
There is a great quote by Zig Ziglar that really hits home for me:
"A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could."Grampa was that "someone" for me. And now I believe I can accomplish anything I can dream up... because I know he would believe I can.
