Flashes of lightening send the sky into an identity crisis between blinding light and extreme darkness. Rain lends a natural carwash, sounding more like sprinkles meeting the ground after falling from the kitchen cabinet. The mad dash indoors begins. One. Two. Three. Go. This night seems fitting for my first on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The Outer Banks of North Carolina stretch from the Virginia state line to Cape Lookout in the south, joined by bridges and ferries. A storm far greater than the one I am in tonight decided to rip through this vulnerable stretch just weeks before my Continue Reading
They Taught Us To Fly
“I hate flying,” the man seated next to me said. I instantly started to consider the little boy on a previous flight, who proudly told the pilot the flight was fun. Flyers become jaded at a certain point. There are so many factors working against enjoying flying, I suppose. I sat back as the plane took a bumpy landing, just before rejoining the ground in Tulsa. I began my trip out to North Carolina, where I am now, with a plane ride. It has become so routine. We board a flight. We hope it travels safely. And then, we land. What I don’t always consider is just how impressive it is, how Continue Reading
Coffee with Strangers: The Importance of Travel Conversations
I arrived to a train station outside of Graz, Austria, clueless if I would make my connection after a delayed overnight train from Florence. A sleepless night of listening to movies and music on my now dead I-Pod passed the 9 or so hours. Knowing that the delay had pushed back my itinerary, I quickly hopped off the train to view the monitor, scanning frantically to see “Graz” somewhere on the screen. As I gazed at the glowing box covered in funny German words (funny to me for their length and that I can’t pronounce a single one of them), I realized I had about 40 minutes until the next train Continue Reading