As I cross the desert, I think of our trip in 2003 to Wales as I ponder our trip our trip in a few weeks to Europe. I have already provided the end of that trip, but I guess that I should probably start at the beginning. So here’s the beginning of our 2003 trip. By the way, the pictures are not of Wales. In 2003, our camera chip would hold about 10 pictures.
“Why Wales?” That was the question that we were most often asked when we told people that we were thinking of going to Wales for a week in December. People would say, “I would think of going to England, Scotland or Ireland, but I have never thought about going to Wales.” Even Wales itself seems to ask one, “Why Wales?” Its tourist website and booklets about itself are rather short and uninformative. And our answer to the question was equally short and pithy. “Why not Wales?”
And just as of course, the answer to the question to “Why Wales” is a bit more complicated than our pithy response. The more complicated answers begins about 11 months ago. Actually, the answer to the questions begins 50 years ago, as Dorey decided that she would be born in December 1953. (Okay, let’s not go on about the possible theological and biological problems with that last sentence, but accept it at face value). Her 49th birthday seemed to me to be a difficult one for her. I don’t think that problem was turning 49 per se, but that the next year she would turning 50. Her feelings on turning 50 were such that I was concerned that she would, on her 50th, turn an uzi on anyone who dared wish her a happy birthday. To help preserve her and others’ eternal salvation, I thought it best that we get out of the town on that day.
To answer the why were going out of town does not, of course, fully answer the question of “Why Wales?” And that one a bit trickier. As you know, a couple of years ago, we bought a timeshare week at the Marriott resort on Kauai. We had planned to spend our week at Kauai this past October, and reserved our spot there a year ago last October. In January, however, I started looking at airfares to bring four people to Kauai. I am not going to Hawaii with Kate without bringing one of her friends. It’s amazing, but it’s easier to take eye rolling from two kids than it is from one.
All of which reminds me of a story of my cousin, Jenny. When she was about 15, her parents took her to Hawaii for a few days. They were staying in downtown Honolulu. They decided to go out for dinner at a restaurant that was a few blocks down from their hotel. They further decided that rather than pull the rental car out of the garage, they would walk. Jenny was incredulous that they would do something so déclassé as walking from the hotel to the restaurant. Now walking in Honolulu is not a rare event. Everyone, locals and non-locals alike, walk everywhere, especially downtown. And given the usual wonderful weather, why not walk? So thousands of people were walking around as Frank, Linda and Jenny were walking the few blocks to the restaurant. Jenny was so embarrassed by this decision to walk, though , that she walked about five steps behind her parents murmuring the whole way. My uncle Frank said Jenny was written out of the will at that moment, and she has only recently been readmitted.
When I first heard this story about the time of your sister’s birth, I did not have a true understanding of its meaning. I do now. And because I understand its true meaning, I was not going to go on a vacation with Kate alone. So in January, as I priced the plane tickets to Hawaii for four, I suffered some sticker shock. It would cost approximately $4,000.00 just for us to get there. That was more than I wanted to spend on the whole trip. So I decided that we should trade our timeshare week for a week somewhere closer to home. Trading a timeshare week is of course much harder than how they make it out to be when they are selling the timeshare week. During that time, they simply tell you call up, and wham, you are going to the Costa del Sol rather than Hawaii. Reality is--well, frankly, I still don’t understand how trading a timeshare week works, but in January, our week in Hawaii suddenly became a week in Williamsburg, Virginia. Oddly enough, we had another week any time the timeshare high priests had available anywhere in the world. I began checking out what they had available anywhere in the world, and the selection was not great. At the end of the list was a spot in Laugharne, Wales, which would cost us only $199.00 for the entire week. Wales, I thought, that sounds interesting, and it will be getting Dorey off this rock and onto a new one for the first time in her life. So Laugharne, Wales, became our destination for Dorey not to celebrate her 50th birthday.
Wales is a homecoming of sorts for us. We have ancestors from Wales, but we don’t know from where. Israel Evans was conceived in Wales. He was, however, not born in Wales, but his birth records indicate that he was born at sea. His family, we guess, was part of the Wales Methodist migration to the United States in the 1700s, most of whom settled in Pennsylvania. The Methodist thing did not quite work out for old Israel, as he became a tavern keeper in Maryland. Anyway, old Israel had a son, David Evans. David Evans converted to Mormonism in 1833, and by 1834, he was part of the Zion’s Camp march. David was also living in the Haun’s Mill area at the time of the massacre. He crossed the plains and was sent to lead the colonization in Lehi, Utah. He was the bishop of Lehi forever. Going back to Israel, we are uncertain who his parents were. Someone on the church website said that his father was Thomas Evans. However, this same record states that Thomas was born in the United States. It would not make sense to have Thomas being born in the United States, but having a son born at sea on the way to the United States. Stranger things have happened, but this does not make sense to me, and think whoever posted the family tree on the website is simply wrong.
Anyway, in January, we decided why not Wales, and spent the next 11 months getting passports and plane ticket, and reading everything we could Wales. Happily, even the travel writers have a problem with Why Wales, as there are only about two travel book on Wales. We read them both.
More tomorrow. Since I began this trip, I have walked 607,043 steps in 50 days. I have walked 287 miles since leaving my home in Alameda. In 27 miles, I will be in Lovelock, Nevada.
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