Celebrating past and present

In 1978 I embarked on my big overseas adventure - and never came home

In 1978 I embarked on my big overseas adventure – and never went home

In 1978 I was a green-as-grass California kid straight out of Uni with an idea of travelling in Europe for a couple of months before going home and getting some sort of graduate degree. It seemed like a fine idea until a company that ran camping tours around Europe for the 18-35 year olds asked if I would like to become a tour leader. Without any consideration of what it might mean I immediately said “hell yes!” and completely changed the trajectory of my life. Now, 37 years later a group of the guys I worked with in Europe have all descended on our home to help me celebrate a milestone birthday.

Old friend reunite - 36 years later we all still looked exactly the same!

Old friend reunite – 36 years later we still all looked exactly the same!

This camping tour company hired young drivers and tour leaders, mainly from Australia and New Zealand, to lead their tours. I was the token Yank amongst a group of guys who, like me, were just looking for a short term job, earn a couple of quid and have some fun. We passed our training trip in early 1979 and were quickly given our first group to lead around Europe. Trips usually ran from 9 to 60 days and spread out all over Europe, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and North Africa. Those were the days!

Kim and I impersonating a couple of Dutchmen in 1980

I worked in Europe for over four years, including some winters leading hotel tours, and generally specialised in the longer itineraries of 60 days around Europe or 45 days to North Africa. I ended up doing many trips with a guy named Kim and it was on a 60 day tour of Europe in mid 1980 with Kim as my driver that I completely fell for a young blond Aussie girl from Sydney named Julie who was a passenger on that trip. We married three years later and this year celebrated our 36th year together! Fairy tale stuff, right!

Knights of the road – great mates and good memories from all those years ago

Fast forward from those carefree days of meeting great people and getting paid to travel around Europe to a recent weekend in Sydney when no fewer than 12 of the people who worked together so long ago came together for a reunion and to join others in a celebration of my milestone birthday. I know it wasn’t my birthday that was the drawcard for this reunion but it was a catalyst to get people to fly from New Zealand, Melbourne, Adelaide and Cairns to catch up with old mates, live in the past for one more night and tell a few lies. I hadn’t seen some of the guys for 26 years and some of them hadn’t seen each other since those heady days in London. Wow.

Julie, Zach, Will and Anna join the birthday boy

There was plenty to laugh about on a great night with friends

But wait, there’s more! Many other close friends joined us on the night, including all the runners from our PSR Runners group, friends from baseball, work and other social groups. It was a grand night, surrounded by friends, family, colleagues, and many blasts from the past. The night didn’t finish until just before the sun rose and it capped off a great weekend of reminiscing, telling stories and one or two sore heads. As it should be!