“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman
A more detailed introduction is here: Welcome
“A happy life is just a string of happy moments. But most people don’t allow the happy moments, because they’re so busy trying to get a happy life.”
– Abraham Hicks
… to my travel blog. It’s under construction but likely, always will be having tweaking done. Thanks for visiting! I travel on a budget with my backpack, go when inspired, flow with the experience that shows up and have amazing experiences. I love meeting people from all over the world and immersing myself in local cultures. I do know how to smile and gesture so I get along wherever I go! If I can help you in your travel dreams, let me know!
I’ve been remote! The combination of full days, lots of activity or travel and feeble wifi has not encourged much writing. Tonight, I’m catching up! I arrived back here around noon after being in Selva Negra for two nights. Before that, I traveled here, walked and talked to people about
A desire to travel is something I picked up in the early 1970’s. Driving East from NW Kansas, the first big adventure of my life, to attend college in Western Kentucky began showing me how much world there is out there. Farm life was demanding and my life orbited a small world of family, work, driving a tractor, harvest and all the preparations around that, chores, animals, repairing fences, gardening, and things of that sort. It was a pretty micro world. But, I had encyclopedias with pictures so I dreamed a lot.
And THEN, driving to Kentucky, attending conferences and track meets, I was exposed to: Savannah, Biloxi, Memphis, Knoxville, Niagara Falls, apple blossom season in the Shenandoah Valley, Thomas Jefferson’s home, the Smokey Mountains. I was hooked!! I knew a huge world existed out there and I decided I wanted to experience it!
I snuck local adventures in wherever I could. In the early 1980’s, I resigned from teaching at the University of Louisville, put my things into storage, loaded my car and headed off for a 15 month adventure. Beginning West across the US, I saw the Pacific Northwest, drove on into Western Canada and Vancouver, meandered down the West Coast eventually going into the Baja of California, then traveled across the South to the Keys of Florida and then up to the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River in Georgia. A university job offer awaited in Northridge, CA, I drove West visiting places in the Four Corners, Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly and eventually the LA Basin. I thought that would satisfy some wanderlust but it only serves to strengthen it. I’ve been exploring since!!
Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru…and then my first trip overseas to Bangkok and Thailand. Once there, seeing how quickly it was changing, I went to Vietnam the next year, traveled the length of the country to Ho Chi Minh City, took a boat upriver on the Mekong to Cambodia, toured Angkor Wat again, returned to Thailand and then back to the US. That trip taught me that with patience and flexibility, I could travel pretty much anywhere! Photo’s and post of those adventures can be accessed here. Enjoy the journey!
Yes, you can learn to travel. First: start! Until you begin, you have no experience! That’s a non-negotiable requirement if you want to learn to improve…for anything, start! Start small, get an experience, learn from it, repeat. My first trip out of the country with my huge overpacked external frame backpack, I was a bit terrified!! However, I knew that if I didn’t start, I’d never learn!
“Everyone dies.
Not everyone will live.”
