Travels

"Travel is sweet.  It makes life sweeter, even when the trip is done."

Travel writers often refer lovingly to their desire to go places as a bug or a disease.  But travel gives anything but dis-ease to those of us who love it.  It helps us clear our heads and see things that have nothing to do with the usual run of our lives.  Everything experienced while on a trip is somehow different, even if only because it takes place in a strange landscape; If you've ever enjoyed hearing your name spoken in a foreign accent, then you know what I mean.

Travel provides the sense of being "away" - away from where may be logistically important, but is only marginally so psychologically.  And so the mental state of travel that makes the most mundane experiences strange and even adventurous, can be found in trips of all sizes.

I enjoy telling stories, and sometimes keep journals when I travel.  A few years ago, some out of town friends asked to hear stories of my trips, so I sent around an index of story titles.  I explained that I would write up 2 or 3 of my stories, on request.  I didn't count on enjoying the writing as much as I did, and the process soon took on a life all its own.  Many of these "installments" are posted in the Travel Writing section of my writings page.

Traveling should be done as lightly as possible - if I can't lift all my baggage off the ground at once and carry it a reasonable distance then I'm doing something wrong.

Why is it the list of places I want to see never gets any shorter?  I'm a New England boy, born & raised, and have only ever learned geography by going to a place, learning a song about it, or listening to the BBC.

I lived in Israel for a year and have taken trips to Jordan and Egypt - the Mideast fascinates me and I hope to visit sites in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon someday (I have very selfish reasons for wanting peace there).  Scotland is another love. I've been there twice for not nearly long enough.  A trip that was more childhood pilgrimage than anything else was last year's trip to Greece with my brother to climb Mount Olympus (glorious!).

Add in trips to England, up the New England coast in a tallship, and a handful of US states, and you've got the complete list of my distance travel.  And each of those trips have given me ideas for other trips.

I want to travel around China and meet people who don't think it's strange that I like learning Chinese sword forms.  I want to cross an ocean on a tallship (as crew, if possible).  I want to watch the tides surround me on Mount Saint Michel.  I want to see Madin Saleh and every other Nabatean site...  you get the idea.

While waiting for my own stories, I have the BootsnAll.com site bookmarked.  The stories there are great (they've even posted a few of mine) and their discussion boards contain good information about locations and the logistics of traveling to them.  If you have good stories you should send them in so I can read them.