“What brings you here,” each and every hotel concierge would ask. For the first time in a long time I could proudly say, “I’m just on vacation.” With each stop through east Texas, I obtained subtle glimpses into what vacation must be like. Rather than checking in and immediately getting to work, I had nothing but time. And that time was sweetly suspended as it only is on vacation. In essence having all that time proved I had everything. I found myself again in travel, as it should be. I was experiencing a bit of work burn out. Traveling and working is exhausting, no matter what some Continue Reading
The Packed Suitcase For Life and The Overdue Vacation
I’m sitting on my suitcase in the hotel lobby in Berlin, hoping the latest addition of a hardback coffee table book will fit in with my life of 10 days. The bellhop stares at me and says, “Can I help you?” I guess I might look crazy to the naked eye but in reality I’m doing what I love to do, packing. Designer Diane Von Furstenberg says of packing, “When you figure out your suitcase, you figure out your life.” Most bemoan the packing process. It is one we try to make easier, quicker and lighter. However I have to agree with Diane. When you can figure out just what items are so important to Continue Reading
My Travel Valedictory Address
I graduated from college in 2009. Since that time, I have built up a travel writing career, a life of doing what I love. When I graduated from college, I was off to Italy to be an au pair. This wasn’t exactly my dream. It was merely a means to an end, a way to be in a country I loved without the red tape needed to actually work in the country. After just two sleepless nights of living in a hallway and a chilly welcome from my host family, I left the au pair job and began traveling instead. I could only take two nights of being unhappy before I broke. I wanted to be a travel writer, not an au Continue Reading
The Dream of The Unplugged Vacation
When I tell someone where I’m going next, statements follow such as, “How fun!” and “I wish I got a vacation!”. The trouble with these sentiments is maybe they don’t know how I have to travel, not necessarily how I want to travel. I arrive to a new place and immediately feel guilty if I waste a minute napping or hanging out in the hotel. I have to get busy sightseeing, tweeting or snapping photographs. I am forever mindful of the story I am there for, the one I need to keep afloat. Travel for me is not unplugged, leaving my home and work life behind. It is much more chaotic, hurried and Continue Reading
Channeling My Mom When I Travel
When someone tells me what to do, in any area of life, my reaction has long been to do the opposite. Perhaps it is my weakness, but I hate unsolicited advice. If I didn’t ask for your opinion, I probably don’t want to hear it. I am a stubborn redhead after all. It’s practical built into my genes. This is the excuse I tell myself. Parental advice and travel is something that always tends to be advice I resist. It is the 14 year old in me in some regard. (Parents? I don’t have those.) When a pending travel opportunity came on to the scene for me this summer, I told my parents. Naturally the Continue Reading
A Hurricane and Hope in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans
The French Quarter is just three miles away from where I stand and yet, I feel like I’m in a different world. There is a sobering photograph in front of me: a picture after Hurricane Katrina and a little arrow pointing out, “You are here”. Back in August of 2005 if I had been standing under the arrow’s point, I would have been completely submerged in water and debris. A man mows an empty patch of property nearby, one where you can see the foundations of a house, the place a family used to call home. I am in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, an area of the city that was hit the hardest by Continue Reading
An Oddball in Search of Oddities on the Road to New Orleans
Stevie Nicks belts out “Dreams” countless times on the radio during my long drive down to New Orleans. It is a song, like most I gather, about wronged love, dreams foiled and hope at the end of the storm. One line sticks with me most, “Like a heartbeat drives you mad in the stillness of remembering what you had and what you lost.” I don’t feel my heartstrings tugging over a wronged relationship, but rather my heart beats for the road. It drives me almost mad as I search for reasons to be on the road, the zaniest of roadside attractions. These roads come into my travels, I have them for a time Continue Reading