My mother’s father grew up in a small town in Montana. That town, however, had a heritage of welcoming visitors and sending its locals off on travels. In the days when rivers were the primary paths of intercontinental travel, Fort Benton was located at what was considered to be the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Travel farther upstream was not possible using larger boats because of the Great Falls. From Fort Benton all the way downstream to St. Joseph, Missouri where the Missouri flows into the Mississippi was open to navigation. Folks in Fort Benton were used to being able to order goods from back east and have them arrive aboard the ships.

When the railroads came to Montana, Fort Benton became a place of connection between river traffic and rail traffic. My grandfather was able to take the train from Montana, where he began his education to Chicago, where he graduated from Northwestern College of Law. His education allowed him further travels in his life. In a time when many people rarely traveled far from home he was able to serve on national committees and travel to meetings far from his Montana home.

His daughter inherited his love of travel. When she was a student at nursing school she met a pilot. Not long afterward when he traveled to California to serve in the Army Air Corps, she traveled to California on the train to marry him. Wartime rationing meant that others of her family weren’t able to attend the wedding, which was held in the home of an aunt and uncle.

The pair loved travel all of their lives. On at least one occasion she was snuck aboard an air corps plane for a trip. When the was ended and he completed his service they set out to build a career as a pilot and nurse. He studied airframe and engine maintenance in Oklahoma before they moved back to Montana. When they moved back they traveled around the region in a light airplane, seeking an airport where they could locate their airplane operations. They finally settled in a small town north of Yellowstone National Park where he set up business doing any work he could find for a pilot and an airplane. He had earned his instructors ratings while serving in the Air Corps and found a few students, including his wife who was the first person to receive her private pilot’s license examination in their small town.

They flew all over the United States, eventually owning and operating a twin-engine all weather airplane flying charter and air ambulance services. They used that airplane to take their growing family on vacations to Washington, DC, Chicago, Indianapolis, Salt Lake, San Francisco, and Seattle among other destinations.

One of the students he taught to fly became the chief pilot of Northwest Orient Airlines and sparked a growing interest in travel by airlines. Together they traveled to Caribbean Islands, Japan, Thailand, Hawaii, and many other destinations. They took some of their adult children on a six week tour around Europe, visiting friends they had made over the years.

When he passed away leaving her widowed at a young age, she continued to travel, visiting China, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and other distant locations. She made a couple of trips to Germany with church groups and she dreamed of additional travel to the end of her life.

Their children have also been travelers. We have been able to take our children to many places across the United States. We have traveled in Central America, to Japan, to Australia, and many other destinations.

I wonder, however, how much the ability and desire to travel will be passed on to future generations. These days, US Air Force pilots don’t all have to travel to engage in their defense activities. Drones are operated around the globe from remote operations centers where the pilots report for duty and go to their own homes after their shift is ended. The use of a variety of remotely operated robotic vehicles is increasing across the military and industry.

I’ve read countless books about ocean adventuring and the sailors who have traveled across the globe on the earth’s waters. But these days, more and more ship’s captains and crews are using cameras, microphones, radars, GPS, and satellite communications to remotely operate ships. It sounds like science fiction, but remotely operated cargo and exploration vessels are already plying the waters of the world while their crews remain safely in land-based operations centers.

While humans still dream of and plan for interplanetary travel, so far exploration beyond the earth and the moon is being conducted entirely by robots. The first explorers to all places beyond the earth’s atmosphere will continue to be robotic vehicles. Exploration no longer involves the huge risks once taken by those who sailed he seas in search of new places.

It is not beyond imagination that future generations will travel far less than present ones. I have seen a big change in the span of my lifetime. Like my grandfather, I have traveled extensively to serve on church committees. For most of my career, serving in the national setting of our church involved travel. I have, for example, served on national committees that met multiple times each year by bringing people together from all across the United States. I once served on a committee that held all of its meetings in Baltimore, Maryland. Each meeting involved multiple days of travel for me. When Susan and I first worked as writers, we flew to in-person writers’ conferences and met with editors face to face. Now, since the Covid pandemic, most of our national meetings are held online. I teach classes for the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ from my home office via computer. I’ve had students from four different time zones participating in the same class - all from their homes.

Our grandchildren and great grandchildren may not need to travel as much as we did. Somehow, however, I hope that they inherit a bit of the love of travel that has been a part of our family for generations and find ways to physically go from one place to another. There are many ways to explore and I hope they discover the joy of travel in their lives.