A Journey of Gratitude Episode 2

What do you do when everything in you says "I'm done — I'm getting out"? In this conversation, Tri Robinson takes Ruben back to where his lifelong love of adventure began: in the cockpit. It starts with Tri's father — a WWII torpedo bomber pilot who survived his plane exploding on final approach to an aircraft carrier — and the flying stories a boy grew up on. But school told Tri a different story: dyslexia (before anyone had a word for it) made him feel like the kid who just wasn't smart. At 16, at his dad's urging, he learned to fly anyway. Then comes the first solo flight at Van Nuys Airport, 1966: a radio call to the tower that came out exactly backwards, a runway missed, gravel flying — and a flight instructor who wouldn't let him quit. Two perfect landings later, a lifelong backcountry pilot was born, along with a lesson Tri has returned to his whole life: the battle between inner confidence and paralyzing inadequacy is won by a choice. Also in this episode: the 1967 drive from Southern California to the College of Idaho with nothing but a '64 Volkswagen and a Texaco road map, the stranger in Winnemucca Tri still calls an angel, first sight of the Treasure Valley at sunset — and a conversation between two dads about raising kids with intention, letting them become who they are, and why the seeds you plant early germinate for a lifetime.