When done right, travel can recharge batteries as well

It is certainly wonderful how a few days spent far away from the hustle and bustle of work can recharge my physical batteries and leave me with a fresher perspective on life.

Don't get me wrong.

I love journalism, my chosen profession. I especially relish the finer aspects of community journalism and I absolutely adore living in the southern part of Shasta County and covering events in Anderson, Cottonwood and Happy Valley.

But every once in a while, it is good to get away for a few days, blow the carbon out of the valves, relax, see new sights, revisit old haunts, reacquaint one's self with relatives and catch up on the lives of family members living in other areas.

Kim Chamberlain and I were fortunate enough to do just that last week, leaving our worries and cares here behind for eight days as we played tourist in eastern Washington and western Montana.

The trip was originally planned to celebrate my 57th birthday with my mother, Merilyn Kraftenberg, who resides in Spokane, Wash. But it took on much greater significance when she suggested a road trip and three-day stay with her brother - my uncle Richard Strong - and his wife Sandra in Hamilton, Mont.

It would be Kim's first visit to both Idaho and Montana as well as her introduction to several members of the larger Winship-Strong family.

The Bitterroot Valley is a wonderful and beautiful place where my father Irvin Winship grew up on a small homesteader farm outside of the small town of Victor, about 30 miles south of Missoula and 10 miles north of Hamilton.

Dad was born in Butte, Mont., but moved at age 7 to the farm near Victor. The 140-acre spread included some apple, pear and plum orchards, a large gently-sloping hay field, a dairy barn with half-a-dozen milking stalls, a pig shed, chicken coop and, for many years, a team of horses used to pull the plow and hay rake until my grandfather, Lawton Glenn Winship, was finally able to afford a used International Harvester tractor.

The farm property has long passed from any of my relatives, but just seeing the farmhouse, barn, fields and orchard brought back a flood of happy memories and the stories started spilling forth.

We saw a flock of wild turkeys in the driveway and enjoyed the cross-valley view for a few moments, then drove the dusty back roads into Victor where we visited the same church where my Dad, a Presbyterian minister and foreign missionary to the Philippines, was ordained.

Blocks away we searched the local cemetery until we located the gravesites of my great-grandparents and grandparents.

Later that same afternoon, upon reaching the beautiful resort city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, we stopped for a fashionably late lunch overlooking Cougar Bay and the city's public beach before returning once again to Spokane.

All in all, it was the perfect birthday trip vacation.