I’m at the laundromat waiting on a dryer to finish it’s job so I figured I’d do a quick write up on some travel goals I have and just spew some quasi inspirational quotes that I am just making up as I go along.
I’ll start with this, I am not looking to be one of those travel influencer accounts, someone with no real depth or meaning outside of “Hey look where I am this week! Don’t forget to smash that subscribe button!!” Not that I begrudge anyone who can successfully make a career out of posting pictures and videos of beautiful places and if I had the opportunity to do that I would probably follow suit. With that said the reason I am trying to build this blog is to inspire others to go for it, and like my influences to show people that we are all humans no matter where we come from or live. Be not afraid of those who are different my friends, for we all bleed red and we are all just trying to get by. This blog is a place to post my experiences and takeaways in the hopes that somewhere someone is reading it all and making their plans to wander the globe taking in its beauty.
GOALS
So I’m careening toward middle age, I am about four months shy of thirty, which feels insane. I still remember being an eighteen year old idiot who had no real plans outside of what video games were coming out soon and who could buy me beer. I still feel incredibly youthful, parts of me just hurt more than they used to, all of this is to talk about goals I have for travel and places to go.
Goal 1:
See Europe. Since I was young I’ve been infatuated with the old country, the mother land, my family hails from Germany and various other countries across the pond and I’ve always loved European history. My wonderful Grandmother on my Mom’s side helped inspire a great interest in World War II that also helped drive this deep curiosity. Europe is such a fascinating place with such a crazy tumultuous history outside of the last 70 years. I’ve lived almost my entire life in Kansas until the past year where I moved to Colorado. I’ve only been outside the states three times, a border town in Mexico when I was 9, a day spent in Victoria, British Columbia and now a week in a small town in Alberta Canada for work. That’s why this is my main Goal, Europe calls to me so my main quest is to make it there within the next 3 years. I don’t want to give myself too tight of a timeline but I also don’t want to give myself too much time lest I push it off too much.
Oh look, me in Canada
Goal 2:
Explore the central states by car steering clear of the interstate. With this goal I’m aligning myself with an idea that most of the reason people think it sucks to drive across certain states *cough* Kansas *cough* is because the interstate never really takes you to the most beautiful places and really gives you a poor idea of how a landscape really is. I want to explore the US highways from the Dakotas to Texas, Utah to Illinois and everywhere in between. I want to show that there’s more there than meets the eye and you can find beautiful places all over if you just get out and look for them. For this goal I want to give myself an expected start date rather than a date of completion, since it will likely take a very long time to accomplish. 5 years, within the next 5 years I plan on starting this.
A random gas station in Kansas had a beautiful Mercury Montclair and I wouldn’t have ever seen if had we stuck to the interstate.
Goal 3:
Keep posting things. This goal will be constant, I want to build this into a real blog that people read frequently something that keeps the hits coming or at least pushes out enough interesting stuff to keep people entertained.
I’ll start with three goals, mainly because the dryer is almost done and I am running out of time.
Push your limits, don’t kill yourself through physical or mental stresses but put yourself out there where you are beyond your comfort level and try to avoid complacency. This isn’t just about traveling, this can apply to everything, if you’re unhappy with your job go after something else, if you think you deserve a promotion go get it, if you want a house don’t get distraught figure out the best route you can take to achieve that goal. If you don’t like where you live look around, there are so many places to live and work don’t stay somewhere just because it’s the known place, go see if you can find a place that better fits you whether that be a small town in the middle of nowhere or a huge metropolis. Be the change you want.
Okay now my dryer is done and my brain hurts from all the clichés.
FIN
The Wandering Toto
– 2019
The Wandering Toto 