Fresh off my trip to Paris at the beginning of May, and recent trips to Australia in March, Vegas in January, and Florida in December, I got to thinking about my love of travel and the "if I knew then what I know now..." perspective.
Oh how I would love a do-over.
- Starting in high school, I would have taken a foreign language. I think the only two options at my high school back in French and German. So, I'm certain I would have opted for French despite my German heritage. I liked the French teacher, Mrs. DeNeve, and I can't even remember who taught German.
- In college, I would definitely sign up for a semester or year of study abroad. This, of course, what have had to be preceded by actually thinking about where I wanted to go to college and what I wanted to be when I grew up. I don't regret solely basing my college choice on where my bestie Cathy was going and becoming roomies with her (thus firmly establishing our life-long connect as Buckaroos!) but--in retrospect--I could have put a little more thought into that hole scenario.
- Post college, I would have embarked on a gap year or at least a couple of months of low cost travel.
Growing up, we didn't take family vacations. OK, there was that one time in August 1968 when my parents loaded us up into the Country Squire and headed out to Wisconsin Dells (with no hotel reservations I might add). That trip quickly turned into a disaster when there were no rooms at the inn...not even a lowly manger for three boys ages 10-11-12, six-year-old me, and my two year old sister. All we wanted was a pool to go swimming in. My recollection is that my dad was completely unenthused about being on this vacation. He would have been 38 then and was running his own excavating business then. He probably saw this time away as lost revenue. My mom would have been 34 and probably thought this was the June Cleaver way to end summer before the kids went back to school.
But I digress. Back to the no available hotels at the Wisconsin Dells. We ended up at a motel along the interstate in Beloit, WI that had no pool. Total buzzkill. The parents pivoted and said "we'll go to Chicago instead." Ummm, yeah, that didn't work out so well. If you know history, this was shortly after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The Democratic National Convention was being held in Chicago at that same time. That National Guard was called in to maintain civility. We got near O'Hare Airport and were caught in gridlocked traffic. The Country Squire was starting to overheat in the sweltering temperatures, so my dad wouldn't run the AC. We were all passing out from the heat. We got off the highway to go watch some planes take off and land at O'Hare and then hit the highway headed west back to Iowa.
With the exception of my parents taking my sister and I on a couple of day trips to Adventureland or Great America, that was basically the only travel I did.
Well, that's not exactly a true statement. I found way ways to get where I wanted. When I was 12 I was obsessed with going to Disney World. A friend of my parents was going to Florida to visit her sister, so she let me tag along. When I was 16, I was really into skiing and wanted to go to Colorado. The same friend of my parents was going to Denver for a conference, so I tagged along with her and took a bus up to the mountains by myself for a day of skiing at Winter Park. When the same friend moved to Texas, I made a few trips to Dallas/Fort Worth to visit.
Needless to say, I had the desire for travel but didn't have a good travel role model or necessarily the means to do it, until I became a grown up!
Here and There
I looked at a map of the US and I've done a decent job of visiting the majority of the 50 states. The green states are ones I have been to, blue are still on the list. Twelve to go!
- Bigger isn't better. Other countries are not as obsessed with huge vehicles, huge houses, and huge restaurants or super markets. There is a different quality of life to be found in quaint little neighborhoods where you actually know your neighbors, visiting local cafes/bistros down the street from your house where the locals hang out, and driving small fuel efficient cars that you park in the street because having a 3-4 car garage attached to your home is not normal.
- Sustainability. Every country I have visited is 100% ahead of the curve when it comes to recycling, reusing, and promoting a cleaner environment. Many countries ban those insidious plastic grocery bags, and some ban the use of plastic bottles for sodas or waters. This also relates to the preference for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
- Budget Travel. In Europe in particular, there are many budget airlines along with an established rail system for efficient and low cost travel options. In major cities, there are mature public transportation options such that wouldn't need to rent a car. People actually walk or ride bikes everywhere. It's rare to see a golf cart (buggy) on a golf course.
- Fresh food. There isn't a McDonalds on every corner. This isn't to say they are devoid of fast food places, it just isn't the norm. The food quality is much better as well as other countries don't genetically modify their crops or pump up livestock with growth hormones and antibiotics. Locally-sourced is the norm and you can taste the difference. Whipped cream is just that...they don't feel the need to add sugar to it.
- Wellness. The fat lazy American is a stereotype that cannot be denied. We are doing it to ourselves with our over-processed and oversized food, couple with our propensity to drive everywhere instead of walking or riding a bike. Granted, they haven't quite caught on to the "no smoking" revolution, but Americans definitely stand out as "bigger" people (myself included)!
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