It is a strange process and yet one we have grown so accustomed to for travel. We either love it or hate it. Packing is a task that never shies away from opinions. How one man or woman packs is different from the next. For me, packing is a welcome activity, a sign that travels are imminent. You are forced to consider what you must have with you and what you really could stand to lose. What you carry with you and how you go about carrying it says a great deal about the self. A messy bag tells a tale of the person carrying it. An orderly and lightweight bag details another traveler’s story. Continue Reading
Suzy Stumbles Over Travel: Week of January 14, 2013
As we settle into the middle of January, I bring you this week’s Suzy Stumbles Over Travel. In case you are new to this site, each week I ask bloggers/writers and readers to submit their favorite travel posts of the week. This can be from your own site or another writer’s piece. I read each submission, comment, tweet the article on Twitter, stumble the piece using Stumbleupon and post a link to the article on my Facebook page. The following week I select my five favorites to be featured here and the stumbling begins again into the next week. Just a few things to keep in mind, please only Continue Reading
Getting More Out of Travel for Less: How I Travel on a Pauper’s Budget
When I looked back on my travels in 2012, there was a lingering question on my mind. How in the world did I afford all of that travel? While some of those trips were press trips, the majority of those travels were my own, out of pockets that I don’t have. The thing about being a freelance travel writer is that you must travel to have things to write about to keep your work going. In the process, you are spending money just to keep up your job. I have to be quite resourceful to continue my travels with very little cash coming into my bank account. For those that want to travel in 2013 but Continue Reading
Suzy Stumbles Over Travel: Week of January 7, 2013
From a new year, I bring you this week’s Suzy Stumbles Over Travel. In case you are new to this site, each week I ask bloggers/writers and readers to submit their favorite travel posts of the week. This can be from your own site or another writer’s piece. I read each submission, comment, tweet the article on Twitter, stumble the piece using Stumbleupon and post a link to the article on my Facebook page. The following week I select my five favorites to be featured here and the stumbling begins again into the next week. Just a few things to keep in mind, please only submit one post per person Continue Reading
Fort Smith, Arkansas Wishes You Were Here
I am standing with one boot in Arkansas and the other in Indian Territory. Such a positioning back in the 1800s wouldn’t have been the safest of perches, especially for the traveler just passing through town. Fort Smith, Arkansas has long found its identity destined to its positioning in the world. This small settlement sets up on the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. It grew up as the area’s first frontier fort and served as a key point where Federal marshals rode out of the United States and into Indian Territory. The Wild West was just over the Arkansas River. Standing where I am in Fort Smith Continue Reading
Suzy Stumbles Over Travel: Week of December 31, 2012
On the last day of the year, I bring you this week’s Suzy Stumbles Over Travel. In case you are new to this site, each week I ask bloggers/writers and readers to submit their favorite travel posts of the week. This can be from your own site or another writer’s piece. I read each submission, comment, tweet the article on Twitter, stumble the piece using Stumbleupon and post a link to the article on my Facebook page. The following week I select my five favorites to be featured here and the stumbling begins again into the next week. Just a few things to keep in mind, please only submit one Continue Reading
For Auld Lang Syne, My Favorite Postcards from 2012
The Scottish poet Robert Burns supposedly penned the song many of us hear around the closing of the year, Auld Lang Syne. It is widely debated however whether Burns actually wrote the song or liberally borrowed from a folk song. Regardless it is a song about togetherness and recalling the days that have gone by in the year with auld lang syne meaning old long since or for old time’s sake. When I’m not traveling, I often feel like a great deal of time has passed since I last explored new lands and uncharted waters. However looking back on 2012, I realize that the stationary traveler’s Continue Reading