Skip Granger
I thought that – having lived a life of travel, law, magic, hitech, venture capital and wine – I knew a lot about all of those things, but I was very wrong, at least when it came to travel personalities. In about 1999, I was reading the Marin Independent Journal newspaper and spotted something interesting. I had never heard of Rick Steves, but he was going to be speaking there about travel on Saturday afternoon. Mary Ann and our kids had other plans, so I went solo to see this guy speak about one of my favorite topics – travel.
When I arrived at the venue, Marin’s largest movie theater, I was surprised at the number of cars in the huge parking lot, and even more surprised to learn that, although I had arrived early, there was only one seat remaining – the very front row center. Although straining my neck to look up, it turned out to be quite opportune.
It turned out that at one point in his earlier life Rick had been a tour director, as had I during summer and holiday vacations during my law school years. He showed travel movies and touted some of his books and tours. Having noted that he was quite thrifty, at one point in his presentation, he said ”Don’t raise your hands now, but after this is over, I am heading to the airport, and could use a ride.” Since I was sitting right under his nose, I waited for about 10 minutes and raised my hand and spouted out, ”Rick, I will take you to the airport,” and to my surprise he said fine!
Rick was a very light packer, which he taught in his seminars (and even sold his trademark travel bags); so I felt that his luggage would fit in the tiny trunk of my BMW Z3 Roadster. And it did! So off we went for our 50-minute ride to San Francisco International Airport. I took the ride south to Silicon Valley regularly for my two days a week business trip there, and I kept a leather portfolio between the seats. We were getting along quite nicely, and I was extremely impressed with his knowledge of Europe, so I explained that we often spend our summers with our kids in Europe during their school vacations and asked if he would give me some tips. Luckily, he said yes and even wrote the instructions in that pad. Otherwise, I would never have known how to spell ”Cinque Terre,” a favorite place of Rick’s that he had made famous, although I had never heard of it at that time. It turned out to be a highlight of our summer in Italy!
He knew a fellow who owned some accommodations and a bar there, so we contacted him and stayed a few nights in one of his places across from his bar. We had a wonderful time hiking along the mountain top and down to the villages to eat before going to the seashore. We ran into a young KU Jayhawk that we subsequently saw again in Palm Springs.
Things were going quite well that summer when our daughter Amanda said that she wanted to call a friend at home in California. Phone calls were different and expensive in those days, so she went over to the bar to use the phone there. When she returned, she seemed stunned. It seems that Rick’s friend was impressed with our daughter and tried to hit on her. Otherwise, the rest of our summer went well except for an Elton John concert that we made a special trip to hear, and he no-showed! Therefore, we went to dinner and shopped in that town. Amanda always took an empty suitcase for our summers in Europe and purchased her back-to- school clothing there. Thus she was dressed a few years into the future when we returned. She observed our rule of no more back-to-school shopping upon our return!
Now that we are getting older and our travel has been somewhat restricted by Covid, war and age, Mary Ann and I really miss those days of learning about new places in the world and enjoying our family together for the summer. During another summer in Spain and Portugal, Amanda being somewhat younger, said ”Daddy, you spent the whole summer with our family, and I got to be with you so much, except when we were out and you went to the restroom, and Trey even got to go with you then.” Kids are really great folks with whom to travel!
Trey, Skip, Mary Ann, and Amanda Granger
