Travel Changes Everything

Have you ever:

• Hung backwards and upside down to kiss the famous ‘Blarney Stone‘, where others had fallen to their death attempting this?
• Watched a magnificent sunset from Antelope Island that mesmerized your senses as you had never seen colors like this?
• Took the same route that pilgrims took up the holy mountain of Croagh Patrick? This 5th century pilgrimage has been taken every year for over a thousand years and as many as 40,000 annually.
• Explored the historic city of St. Augustine (Florida) and the Castillo de San Marcos where bloody battles were fought? What did you feel as you stood against the fortress wall where thousands of bullet holes are notched, many from the past executions of prisoners?
• Walked along the historic route the ‘Ring of Kerry, amid the historic ruins of lost communities and imagined what life was like when this area was active and populated.
• Felt the mist on your face and heard the roar of the Niagara Falls from a boat below? Did you know people have went over this in barrels, and survived?
• Walked through the tunnels under the Colosseum of Rome? This is where slaves waited in darkness, moments later they would be forced to fight to their death for the ‘amusement’ of the screaming spectators.
• Took a selfie on a Mayan temple, ‘Palace of the Masks’ at Kabah Ruins (Mexico). Could you imagine what it took to build this impressive 9th century building by hand?
• Climbed to the top of Koko Crater ‘stairs of doom’, just to see if you could (Hawaii).
  Not sure I would do this one twice in this life, it was brutal!
• Walked across the jagged remnants, or in an underground cave created by a of a lava flow that occurred 65,000 years ago? Laupahoehoe Point (Hawaii)
• Got accidently locked in a castle (Soriano, IT) after the employees left, and had to climb out over the fencing to get help for your friends still locked inside?
• Dangled your legs off of a cliff on Bear Creek Trail, in Ouray, CO? Can you imagine what the burros might have felt as they carried heavy loads of equipment and gold on the narrow mining trails only a foot from the cliff’s edge?
• Heard the power of an opera singer’s voice while sitting at the Teatro La Fenice theatre, in Venice Italy? Or walked across the Piazza San Marco square at dawn… before the thousands of tourists arrived, and it was only you enjoying a rare moment of silence?
• Faced your fears and went parasailing over the ocean in Montego Bay?
• Floated on mangrove waters filled with alligators? Can you imagine what it was like when Native Americans searched for food in dugout canoes and spears to catch their dinner?
• Stood where a battleship was sunk in Pearl Harbor, HI. Can you hear the voices of the 1,177 people who died that day?
  

If you haven’t experienced anything truly memorable, what are you waiting for?

Have you been idle, just watching the world go by without taking part in it?

Is that enough for you, or do you need more?

Don’t fret, there is still time to start. There was a time when I hadn’t done any of these things either.

How travel impacts you

The impact of travel will give you: new experiences, new interests, new conversation topics, and exercise.

But beyond the basics, it will likely transform your perspectives and views of the places you go.

When you experience new places, new faces, and the many different lives that you will meet on the journey… it changes you in ways you can not imagine.

While you can read about locations and history in books, when you visit these places in person, for just a brief moment you may feel what it is like to walk on another’s path. To step in the shoes of the people and their ancestors that came before you.

Close your eyes, open your mind, and let the environment engulf you.

In those moments as you are standing exactly where historical events took place, you may feel the past upon you, around you, and within you.

In that very place: you may come close to understanding their battles fought, and the victories won.

In that very place: you can feel the elements of nature. Then you can recognize the brutality of the winters with the cold in your bones as you seek food for your family, or the relentless heat on your skin as you wander across the desert landscape searching for the life saving oasis to drink from.

In that very place: You can almost feel their struggles, hardships, despair, fear, and pain.

In that very place: You may imagine the laughter and pride they may have felt, and the connection they had with their communities of that time.

In that very place: You may sense that their presence is still there, and their memories are not forgotten.

In those moments, and the moments after… you will no longer see things in the exact same way you did before. Something in you will change, and likely your perspectives will change too.

This is something that you just can’t get from viewing an image, or reading about it. Experiencing these sensations firsthand is the most effective.

Your presence is required!

Making Sacrifices

Every year has been the same…. I skrimp, I save, I go without, I shop used, I pick up pennies, I recycle scrap metal, I hold yard sales, and I sacrifice all year to make it happen.

My only regret is that I didn’t start earlier. So many years were wasted not really living, but just getting by.

LIFE is meant to be LIVED!

Don’t waste anymore precious time… experiences are around every corner, in every town, in every country across the entire planet.

Make memories you’ll never forget today!

It’s not where you go, it’s the going that’s important

While you may not be able to travel the globe due to finances or family, there are places right next to your home that you have yet to explore. Places that cost nothing except gas to get there.

So when I’m not taking a yearly adventure with my favorite travel companion and best friend (my Mom), I’m doing the same at home.

Wandering down untraveled roads to see what’s there. Meeting people along the way. Always in search of the next unforgettable moment.

It’s funny how getting ‘out of my comfort zone’, has become my ‘comfort zone’.

HOW TO – STEPS TO TAKE

1. Open google maps and pick a location out, near or far.
2. Due a quick internet search to read about it, and find out the brief history.
3. Pick a date and make a plan to get there, alone or with friends!
4. Follow through with your plan! Don’t cancel no matter what! Don’t let the weather changes (rain, or snow), friends cancelling, or other life tasks discourage you from this plan. Just do it!
5. As you explore this new location, connect your thoughts to the past lives, and imagine what it might have been like to live in a different era, under different laws, and without the modern comforts we are so blessed to have today.
6. Talk to strangers, make new friends.
7. Be grateful you were fortunate to be able to make these new memories.

If you want to follow my journeys maps from the US and other countries, I’ve done all the legwork for you. Click Here to find a location near you.

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To purchase this MEME image (without the quote) on products:

“I urge you to travel. As far and as much as possible.

Work ridiculous shifts to save your money. Go without the latest iPhone.
Throw yourself out of your comfort zone. Find out how other people live and realize that the world is a much bigger place than the town you live in.

And when you come home, home may still be the same. And yes, you may go back to the same old job, but something in you will have changed.

And trust me, that changes everything.”

Anonymous

Location and history of image:

HERMITAGE CASTLE – This is a digital photo rendition of the Hermitage Castle, a 13-14th century ruin in Hawick, Scotland.

As noted in Wikipedia, “It is thought that the name derives from Old French: l’armitage – guardhouse. The castle was known as the guardhouse of the bloodiest valley in Britain, and the “Strength of Liddesdale.

Hermitage Castle was supposedly built by one Nicholas de Soulis around 1240, in a typical Norman Motte and Bailey pattern. It stayed in his family until approximately 1320 when his descendant, William de Soulis, forfeited it because of suspected witchcraft and the attempted regicide of King Robert I of Scotland. Legend has it that Soulis’s tenantry, having suffered unbearable depredations, arrested him, and at the nearby Ninestane Rig (a megalithic circle), had him boiled to death in molten lead. In actuality, he died, a prisoner, in Dumbarton Castle.”

In the 1500’s, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, held the castle. Mary, Queen of Scots, made a famous marathon journey on horseback from Jedburgh to visit the wounded Bothwell there, only a few weeks after the birth of her son. They were to marry shortly after the murder of her 2nd husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, regardless of the fact that Bothwell was implicated amongst the conspirators.”

For more interesting facts on this historic castle, see wiki.

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