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Places I’ve Read About (and Haven’t Been, Yet) Pt. 1
A life long traveler, I haven’t been to all the cities, beaches, forests, deserts I plan to explore. Likely most travel lovers haven’t either. To exhaust a (maybe) endless list is a herculean pursuit. Worthy of the effort, any avid traveler will agree. A self-claimed avid traveler is often judged by the exoticism of their exploits.
OP: Have you been to Zanzibar?
Me: No, not yet. I know it’s a funny song by Tenacious D.
OP: Oh, haha, we’ll you haven’t traveled unless you’ve been to Zanzibar
Me: Says you! (A fair retort), have you been to Zion National Park?
OP: Uh, no. That doesn’t count!
Me: Oh, really? So, you’re saying unless it’s a far away, mystic sounding, it’s not travel?
Usually that either changes the mood of the conversation or ends it, abruptly.
There was a time when the dozens of road trips I’d made qualified as “travel”. Made so by rough and tumble writers, Jack London, John Steinbeck, and Jack Kerouac. The era of the loner vagabond is lost in time. For decades, unless one was whisked on a jet or set sail to another continent, it does not equal a genuine travel experience. That seems to be the prevailing sentiment to many travel lovers, novice and experienced alike…
