Travel is More Than A Destination.

Over the holidays I received a book titled Are We There Yet? Travel as a Spiritual Practice. I had not previously thought of travel in that way.  I am not searching for anything and have no expectation and/or desire to be transformed by my travels. Good thing too, or I would be changing all the time. I try to live more or less the same life on the road as I would in one place. However, I do make a conscious effort to be present in the now, which is a zen way to approach life. No past, no future, just experiencing this fleeting moment,

However, after reading this book I see that I am seeking something. From the moment we sold our home we have been looking a new home where we can live our lives in the best way possible. A place where we can have the highest quality of life and where our spirits can be at peace in these troubled times.

I don't want to list all the countries, cities, and communities we have considered, however,  Arizona weather still comes in first.

This week Franklin and I headed down to Tucson to check out a community he had read about. It is connected to the University of Arizona and offers a lot of lectures and stimulating activities. The facilities are terrific. Physically it is probably like any adult community with gyms and art studios, social events, etc but there are so few people here, one can have the place to yourself, like a private resort. the people very Interesting and friendly. But the location is extremely remote. Bordered by a national part on one side, there are only three business or actually three buildings in about a half an hour drive. So the question for us has been could be see ourselves living in a small community (fewer than 300 people) in the middle of nowhere. It has been a journey of reflection and self discovery of what is most important to us at this time in our lives.




My starting point is: what would my life be like if I lived here full time, without a support network to rely on?  We usually aren't tourists on a journey or vacation. We are doing the things we like to do every day: spending time on our computers, walking a lot,  going to the gym, sitting in hot tubs, and dancing. We seek out destinations where we can easily live our lives, more or less as usual, without being bored or having to work to find things to keep us busy.

I really enjoy the multidimensional aspect of travel. There is doing something, say, ordering a pizza. (maybe in another language). Then there is the level of safety paying for the pizza when you pull out money somewhere like Naples or Buenos Aires, cities known for pickpockets and purse snatching. Then there is experiencing the pizza and comparing it to previous pizzas. And experiencing the ambiance, the restaurant, the street and watching the people around you. Just being in the moment keeps me pretty busy. 

Naples, Italy from one of the most famous pizza restaurants. A nice light crust but too much of it. 

And compare it to pizzas we have tried elsewhere

Lucca Italy. Pretty darn good. 

Flammekueche, a cheese and onion flatbread (almost a pizza), a local snack food from Alsace Lorraine, France.

Another thing that becomes multidimensional is the sense of time. The hour remains the same (allowing for the time difference) but is it the first day or last day of your trip? Do you have activities that need to be scheduled into a short timeframe or too much tine to kill between checking out of the hotel and until your flight leaves? Do you need to stay in touch in your job back home on their tine schedule or the stock market on theirs? I firmly believe there is more than one reality and the elastic nature of time really becomes apparent on the road.


Early on one figures out whether you like to plan ahead or prefer the freedom of making plans at the last minute. I- we- travel with a general plan but allow the time and opportunity to be flexible and shift gears at a moment's notice. On our last trip to Argentina last winter we expected to spend three weeks in Buenos Aires but had such a good time that we stayed for three more months. We planned to borrow a friend's condo and instead checked into a hotel for the whole time.

Our next few months are totally open-ended. It has been many years since I-we traveled this way. We are heading back to Argentina at the end of January with a one-way ticket. There is a tentative plan of staying two months, returning to Arizona for a couple of days to switch suitcases (already packed), driving to Seattle then flying to Japan. Only time will tell if any of this plan comes to pass. There are dangers attached to having no plan such as higher airfares, and no seat availability. But I look at travel as an adventure- even if things go wrong. Travel, like all new experiences has the risk of danger. Life is a dangerous proposition.

Knowing that life and travel, in particular, is potentially dangerous, I do try to limit the risk without limiting my experiences. My purse was stolen in France last autumn. I am not sure how or even when it happened as I was en route, burdened with my luggage and backpack at that moment. But I had my passport safely on my body and extra credit and debit cards hidden away as well. So yes, it was a mistake and certainly inconvenient (there went camera number 3 right before my barge trip) but my travels continued and ultimately it was a growth provoking experience. An aphorism I live by is "if you don't gamble, you can't lose, but you can't win either." I could have stayed home.

Which brings me to serendipity (things that happen by chance in a happy or beneficial way). When my purse disappeared my only money was $10 American dollars and my barge trip was starting in half an hour. Somehow I could not get cash from an ATM with my back up debit card (note to self: check that cards are activated before starting a journey). I used the $10 bill to take a taxi to the meeting place (a hotel) figuring I could get a cash advance there, and a minor miracle occurred. The first people I met were from Scottsdale, my old hometown. We had not met previously but the man immediately offered to lend me money and any potential crisis was averted. BTW that is his teeshirt in the photo above.