TGIM - Travel

We take for granted the ease in which we can get from one place to another.  Anyone who has ever played Oregon Trail knows what a pain in the ass it is to break an axle or when one of your kids gets dysentery.  Today we have a veritable cornucopia of travel options beyond just foot and horseback - planes, trains, automobiles, subways, lightrails, bikes, donkeys.  All of them far more efficient than when the wild west was the Wild West.

We can go anywhere, the world over, in a few hours time.  We don't have to worry about whether or not we'll survive a months long journey on a boat to get somewhere, or what to do when we discover the edge of this flat world.  Travel is a relatively painless process (provided you don't drink the water) that can take you anywhere you want to go.

Rather than bitch and moan about how we like things to stay the way they are, we need to take advantage of travel.  There is, to quote a trite cliché, an entire world out there.  There are things we can't fathom and cultures left of center that need to be experienced in order to enrich our own lives, regardless of how exciting or mundane they may be.

I am a definite xenophobe.  My two trips outside the country (hitting England twice and France once) haven't been the best experiences.  But if you'll recall from an earlier post, I have travel goals and want to get out there and see what this crazy blue ball of water and dust has to offer.

It's so easy and cheap compared to how it once was.  The Internet and multi-band (or disposable) phones make staying in touch a breeze.  There are no excuses for not traveling.  Don't believe me?  Plan your trip now.

And so I'm not all hype, this week I head to the Big Apple for a 7-day jaunt, then off to Birmingham and The ATL next month, and who knows where April will take me.  I know I'm hitting Mexico at some point this year, San Diego in July, and I'll likely head back to Texas at some point.  And that's just domestic travel.