I’ve been home for less than a month. It’s mid-May and I’ve already been to India, Kauai, Mexico and Santa Fe this year.
<<< Me in Seattle. I look happy, don’t I?
I love my significant other. I love my home. I love Seattle (though I could do without all the record-breaking sogginess). But what am I doing right now?
- I’m looking for flights to Mongolia and Burma and trying to figure out how to fit in a research trip for a 2012 WanderTour to one of these destinations prior to or after my Bhutan Trekking tour in October.
- I’m looking through my travel photos on Facebook. I’m reading through my own tour itineraries and am daydreaming about getting out of dodge.
- I’m also looking at the itinerary for the Mongol Rally this summer. My friends Dave and Deb, from The Planet D, and Sherri, from Ottsworld and Briefcase to Backpack, are motoring from London to Mongolia this summer and it’s killing me that I’m not doing it! They’ll be in a car, however. And I’d do it on a motorcycle in a heartbeat. Well a couple of heartbeats. (The fabulous sig’o says he’d prefer a car, so one day we may do this behind a wheel instead…)
- And, I’m acting all jealous that Nancy, our WanderBoomer blogger, is going to the Galapagos on a press trip.
A week ago I was talking about how delighted I was to be home this spring to work in my garden. Vegetables? Flowers? Pht. Now I’m thinking I can always buy veggies at the local farmers’ market. Instead of digging in the dirt, I’m thinking about the beach in Kauai, a dirt road in Uzbekistan and seeing the Himalayas up close and personal.
I mused to a friend recently that I find driving to downtown Seattle (12 minutes away), looking for parking and fighting crowds at a concert to be a pain in the butt. But give me a map and let me loose in the streets of Saigon, Bangkok or Rio (high on my wish list), and there’s no way I’d turn down the chance.
So all this crazy wanderlust has me asking, “What is wrong with me? Why this travel itch? And why can I not shake it?”
Though some of you share this affliction with me, the vast majority of people in the world don’t suffer from this disease. And I admit that it’s sometimes those raised eyebrows that has me questioning myself.
Perhaps one day I will want to hang up my backpack and have a “normal” life. But if my friend Meg Noble Peterson is any indication, it’s unlikely I’ll stop anytime soon. Meg spent a milestone birthday (Meg, would you like to reveal which one?) climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Meg’s my hero and shows no sign 
of slowing down in her travels.
If I could look into a crystal ball and see my future, it’s far more likely to include the kinds of adventures that Meg continues to pursue. Though I question my sanity at times, I think that it’s travel that keeps me young and, ultimately, curious about myself, my neighbors and open to the world at large.
Despite all that, I’m still left wondering, What’s wrong with me?
Travel Well!
Beth
Photo Credit: Crystal Ball by Dan Queiroz
Well, Beth, you have taught me how to get on your blog so I can comment on your agonizing. In fact, for a moment I thought you were in NYC looking over the Hudson.
Answer to your question: There is not a damn thing wrong with you. Case closed. In time, if you should travel as down and dirty as I do, your knees might get a little rusty and you might decide to add a little luxury in the toilet department, but that will be a long time coming.
I so relate to your feeling about dodging traffic in Seattle (get to the city council and lobby for that new highway I’ve been hearing about for a century), but my method of keeping from going mad is to concentrate on the good things I can get here that I can’t enjoy in Asia. Well, I guess clean streets, family, theater, opera, and friends just about do it. But you can’t help how you’re wired and the fact that you are restless for exploring new and different places, cultures, scenery. God bless!
I try to be Buddhist about my life and live in the present/moment. Much easier said than done.
Oh, and I was 80 on that Kili trip, and 82 in Sikkim last fall (Kangchenguna base camp from the Indian side). My birthday is June 3. Do the math! Right now I choose to think of my age as a plus, not a detriment. After all…when you think of the alternative….
See. That’s why I love Meg. Did ya’ll read that last paragraph???
Nothing is wrong with you, Beth. I, too, love my significant other very much, our home, and Seattle. I have the same Bhutan Trekking trip in October to look forward to, as I will be joining you, and then some. But, I too, think about travel and other places to go all the time, every day in fact.
I envy that you will be going to Papua New Guinea in August, and hopefully Mongolia and Burma. I now envy Nancy and her press trip to the Galapagos. Heck, I even envy a few friends of mine who just came back from various cruises. And now I am in awe of your friend Meg.
I would love to travel more often than I do. And I don’t think any of this means that anything is wrong with me. So I don’t think that anything is wrong with you.
I wonder the same all the time, Beth! The intense wanderlust can be somehow isolating. It often makes me feel strange, as if I don’t really belong… I imposed a travel embargo on myself earlier this year and have since traveled to Curacao, China and Norway. I write this from Finland, and I’m heading back to New York and then Kenya in ten days. Not exactly a successful embargo but I was pretty proud of myself that I managed to stay put in New York for almost three months! On my good days, I love all this action and adventure. But on those other days, I feel like a misfit. Anyhow, if something is wrong with you, then at least you’re not alone.
HA, Anja. I remembered someone having a self-imposed travel embargo but couldn’t remember who it was – likely because that person (ahem, you) was still traveling 🙂
Glad you’re still doing what you love.
And, Debby… isn’t it crazy that we can have these travels lined up, yet still pine over someone else’s adventures? It’s not that the grass is greener, it’s just that I want MORE of the grass!
I don’t think anything’s wrong with you at all. I’ve been home for almost two months now and I’m going stir crazy. I can’t wait to get on an airplane again. It’s good, though, that you’re sifting through pictures and dreaming. It means you still love what you do.
Boy I sure would like to get out more. Press trips to the Galapagos, travels to Bhutan…it all sounds divine and I am envious of all of you. That said, there is something, for me, that is so calming and centering about being in my garden and sleeping in my bed and I try to remind myself of that when I am wishing it was me with the trips lined up!
Whatever is wrong with you, I have it too. I just returned from two weeks in Las Vegas, on a cruise and in Vancouver and I’m in the midst of planning a beach vacation to Tybee Island and a visit to either New England or Europe in the fall. It’s a sickness!!!!
I too have the itch, the fever, the bug whatever. I can’t get rid of it & don’t want to. Returned from Kenya six weeks ago & have been looking for something for five weeks now. Getting desparate, a brief trip to Florida is NOT going to help!
Ug. I totally agree Beth. Today I was daydreaming in the elevator (creating a list of all the places I’d like to visit soon) and missed my floor.
My Great Uncle was born in a gypsy camp and he told me that of all his relatives I had the most gypsy blood. When you got it – you got it girl. There’s no getting rid of it.
Hang in there!
Melinda
Hey Beth, Nothing wrong with you – you’re used to getting up and doing something different each day in a foreign land.
I have a self-imposed out-of-country travel embargo this year so that I can save up for that next one (hmmm, maybe that Burma trip you speak of, or back to Bhutan, or Viet Nam)….) I am totally itchy to go somewhere though… and am trying to finagle going to some place not too far flung.
I love this post because you captured what we all feel so often. As you said, “the grass isn’t always greener, we just want more of it.” We have this great adventure coming up and we too look at what others are doing and feel the same way as you. I want it all. And yet, when I am travelling, I yearn for home. If I could split myself in two, life would be perfect.
Haha, I LIVE in a foreign country and take constant trips both to different cities and villages here and to other foreign countries — yet I still am envious of everyone else who travels to someplace I’ve not yet been. Also, I must add, your friend Meg rocks! Yah.
I’m really not alone? (And I love all these comments by women!)
Wouldn’t it be great to do like Samantha in Bewitched… twitch your nose and be wherever you want to be – wouldn’t even have to get on a plane. Or plan much.
Your friend sounds very cool. In Luxor a few years ago, I met a wonderful 85-year-old Danish women who had just returned from driving around Egypt all by herself for weeks. (Brave at any age, considering the mad Egyptian traffic).
Whew! I’m not alone!!! I too live to travel and am always dreaming about where to go next. I happily research trips on the Internet that I dream about but who knows if I will ever do… I returned from Nepal and London in mid January and had three months, yes a very LONG three months at home during a horribly cold winter and early Spring before I managed to get away for a weekend in Victoria. I actually cried when I saw the mountains and ocean… I am off to Whistler and Vancouver next week for ten days or so and then who knows. I can’t believe I don’t have anything else planned – it’s driving me nuts. I keep thinking this year I must be sensible and save money and think with my head and not my heart…wonder how long that will last? I don’t care about “things” (although I just bought myself an ereader and plan to buy Meg’s book tonight!) – am carfree, rent an apt. – I just want to explore the world.
Such a great post, Beth. 🙂 I’ve been pondering this question myself recently. After sitting down and asking myself: what do you really love? And I can’t escape it: I adore travel. It inspires, sustains, and shapes me in ways I treasure. May you never recover from this beautiful affliction. 🙂
Yep! Know the feeling well. At the end of 2010–a year with a lot of farflung travel to places like Rwanda and Borneo–I declared this the year I stay home (or stick to domestic travel). So far I’ve been skiing in Tahoe half a dozen times, skiing in Colorado, spent two weeks in Hawaii, and am now on a May 15-Dec. 15 stint of ongoing travel: currently on a two-month road trip of the West, am going on a Canadian/New England cruise with my parents after that, then am driving across country over a two-week period and THEN am sailing to 15 countries for four months this fall! Moral: It’s in our blood, we just can’t deny the wanderlust.
Beth,
I had to take a few days to think about this post. 30 years ago when I first our travel internationally I had no idea how much my life was about to change. On that first trip to New Zealand I met someone who told me this was only the beginning and I would develop a habit that would consume the rest of my life. little did I know how right he was. after traveling the world extensively for 30 years I can safely say I have an addiction that I never want to cure.
like you I have developed a passion for exploring new places and meeting amazing people along the way both locals and fellow travelers. there is something special about traveling that you can never explain to someone who does not get out and explore the road less traveled. I realize this is not for everyone but for those of us that are lucky enough to discovered the power of talent has to offer all I can say is, Travel On.
Beth, nothing is wrong with you. I had a long career with an airline and traveled weekly, either on business or personal. My daughter literally grew up on an airplane! A few years ago, I moved to Seattle and was looking forward to landing and not traveling..getting used to my new state, working on my new business and not being on an airplane. Recently, I have picked up the pace and have been traveling a lot more. On a recent trip to Rhode Island (nice but not exotic)…it hit me that traveling brings me joy and I am happiest when exploring new places, meeting new people and generally learning about my surroundings. I don’t even mind spending time at airports. On a recent trip through DFW I discovered they had a Red Mango…how great is that!! Life is short, so we should all find the things that are joyful in life and if traveling is one of your joys…I say keep traveling!!!