Solivagant USA

Solivagant–a solitary wanderer, according to Merrian-Webster. A definition that fits my approach to discovery and travel, especially with months of continuous exploration. I sometimes think Solivagant should include an “r” in the spelling.

I like the emotions I feel when I discover something new to me. I invite you to join me if you like observations of the ordinary offered with humor and reflection. I’ve found myself in the past heading off to Peru or P.R. China or Italy or Mexico or Portugal or Scotland or Switzerland or Spain or, locally, Hawai’i for a few days. Frequently I ended up staying for a month, or years. I dislike planning and mapping an itinerary of what to see, eat, stay, or do.  I do like sharing my experiences. I think I know my country; and realize I may not. I want to check the pulse of the nation and get mine to beat a bit faster.

My solivagant approach is simple: explore our Country’s landscapes, exciting cities, and unforgettable people. I want to wander to discover what provides pleasure to those who live in America. I feel a need to check my perceptions of what makes me happy against the choices of others. I’m also itching to see a 2017 America against a historical backdrop of places, events, and people–with my 256 Grand-Parents as the cast of characters–in my walk of discovery.

I’m fortunate that three of my four grandparents directly descend from grandparents who arrived in the American Colonies prior to the American Revolution. I find it remarkable that I am alive in 2017. Dozens of my super-great grandfathers served on the side of the Patriots and lived to sire sons and daughters who lived to do the same. I’ve traced these direct lines–5 to 7 generations of grandparent descendants of my original immigrants–to discover their land, occupations, education, and religious choices.  My genes are strong, like the vast majority of those who read these words. Generations of my aunts and uncles, and grandparents, died of diseases, war wounds, and natural disasters that are barely recalled today. I marvel at the fortitude, ingenuity, perseverance, and teamwork my super-great grandparents used to survive and thrive as they pushed west, along the King’s highway, The Great Valley Road, and The Pioneer’s Road to cross the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains. Others took the Federal Horse Path south to settle on lands taken from various indigenous tribes.

I’m relenting to my primal instinct to walk their paths. Literally. I can easily combine hiking, camping, walking, and researching in my wandering. I want to stand on the land Patrick Henry, as Governor of Virginia, granted my 5X great-grandfather, Christopher Strader. I loved my grandmother Omeda Boatman Snyder, and have a photo of her mother Alice Strader. I want to wander the banks of the Saluda River near Greenville, South Carolina and eat lunch on the grounds of William Blythe’s plantation. My mother Rosemary Frie Snyder descends from William’s son John who had a daughter named Nancy. She married Samuel Fry and generations later I’ve already had breakfast in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas with my Fry super-great grandparent ghosts.

I’m here because all of my grandparents made different choices than their siblings, as so many of us do today.  I don’t know if my grandparents were traveling to an improved way of life or running from an experiment in terror. I do know that each generation, then as now, had a choice: Use slaves to make a profit on your plantation in the 1740s? Run one of the first freighting business in Virginia in the 1760s? Become a Methodist Preacher circuit rider in the Northwest Territory (Ohio) in 1798? Git Gone To Texas in the post-War of 1812 recession and panic? Gather up your peeps and move from North Carolina to Cape Girardeau, Missouri in the 1840s? Live through the War Between the States to move to Wisconsin in the 1860s? Build railroads and run cattle across the greater American west in the 1880s?  Abandon your multi-language skills in the 1910s? I am fortunate and extremely grateful, that my life has been easy. I have an opportunity to drink a cup of coffee, eat a yummy treat, and give thanks to my Ancestors for the life I enjoy today.

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