Welcome to My World

“Not all who wander are lost,” goes the saying. My previous travels have been limited by time and money, but now, I have the rest of my life. I have shed as much financial responsibility as feasible, which gave me the ability to be a semi-vagabond on a modest scale.

I have not established any fixed itinerary, preferring to take advantage of opportunities that arise, but as a practical matter, I am exploring on a regional basis. Transportation is a large portion of traveling cost, airfare especially, but hotels add up to a larger portion and quickly. To make this adventure possible for me, I chose to wait until I didn’t have to fly back and forth across the Atlantic according to a work schedule. I decided to use ground transportation whenever possible and to use hotel alternatives, such as AirBnB, B&Bs, hostels, or locally-owned inns. There are many websites to help you do the same.

I am hoping that you will feel inspired toward your own adventure, seeing different ways of living, different beliefs, and, equally important, the ways we are the same. My mother liked to travel, and I remember a line from one of her flyers: “Thou shalt not complain that things are not like they are at home, for thou hast paid good money to find things different.” If everyone lived the same way in the same landscapes, why bother? In the immortal words of Auntie Mame (the title character in a book by Patrick Dennis,) “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!”

Choose to travel because you want to climb mountains, choose it because you want to learn about other cultures, choose it because you love wildlife, or the ocean, or because you have lived in the same place your whole life. Whatever your reason, try it on. Maybe you won’t like it. Okay. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can always go home, and you will be wiser and more clear about how you want to live your life.

I am still on the adventure. Let me tell you about it.