Almost Heaven With the Tribe

Tomorrow, my wife and I journey to West Virginia to meet up with fourteen folks we met on our 2015 vacation to Alaska, our first with Road Scholars. A few years back, the sixteen of us branded ourselves "Rogue" Scholars, partly because our collective wanderlust has inspired us to reunite all over the country each year, beginning in 2016 when we did so in Rocky Mountain National Park. Since then, our travels have taken us as far west as the San Juan Islands off Washington coast and east to Acadia National Park in Maine. And, with seven states represented among us, we've re-connected at several points in-between - usually nearby to someone in the group - an element that adds to the pleasant anticipation I feel each year. 

But as enjoyable as visiting and exploring the diverse locales has been, it's the effortless interaction and stimulating conversations that invariably have me buzzing as one of these trips approaches. Among these fourteen smart, interested people there are two retired lawyers, a retired psychiatrist, and a Sanskrit scholar. There's an artist whose work has enough notoriety to have been shown as far afield as Berlin, the author of a cookbook, someone who has led white-water rafting adventures. There are two photographers so talented we have the work of both hanging in our home. There's a couple who ran a retreat center in Colorado hosting workshops on social justice, among other topics. There's a hiker who has done El Camino three times. There are two birders who could easily have acted as consultants on the Owen Wilson/Steve Martin/Jack Black film My Best Year. Care to guess how many languages - aside from Sanskrit - my fourteen newest friends are conversant in? See what I mean about stimulating conversations? If you're fortunate enough to have a tribe as interesting as this - no matter the size - I'd welcome hearing about it. I suspect some of my readers would also be interested. 

Before our reunion last year at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, I replaced Johnny Mercer's immortal lyric with the one below, set to the plaintive Henry Mancini melody of Moon River. Join me in a sing-a-long. 

Rogue Scholars - older than the dirt, with joints that often hurt at night.

We share stories; we laugh with such ease. Wherever we end up it always feels right. 

Some birders - some who like to cook; much older than we look (we dream!)

We're building this bond: something real, strong as any steel, each one of us can feel -

Rogue Scholars, our team.