How to Choose a Travelling Companion: A Valentine

When David and I had known each other five months, we drove from Utah to San Francisco to do a photo essay for our History of San Francisco class and to visit his family. Halfway over the Sierras, we ran into a blizzard. Highway Patrol closed Donner Pass, and we were stuck on the wrong side.

Disaster followed disaster: we took a detour, and that road was closed. We put snow chains on our tires, and the chains kept breaking.

And yet by the time we made it to the Bay area, fourteen hours late (the trip was originally supposed to have been twelve hours), our ill-fated trip had already morphed from Disaster to Great Adventure. We realized that we were good at calming each other and at brainstorming solutions to problems. And at consuming large quantities of junk food.

These qualities, we decided, would be a good in a marriage.

And they have been. Back then, we couldn't have guessed how central travelling--and edible treats--would be to our family's life. But we were absolutely right that, with the right travelling companion, Disasters have a way of becoming Great Adventures.