Grasshopperking(0)

It was my first time traveling overseas; a life-changing moment happened sitting in economy somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Before i ever got a stamp in my passport, before i set foot on foreign soil, i was inspired to see my own country…

The German gentleman sitting beside me had pulled his carry-on down to show me his masterpiece of packing and pre-planning. He unzipped the bag and opened the lid, beaming with well-earned pride. Inside, perfectly arranged so there was not a single cubic centimeter of unused space, were boxes of Lucky Charms cereal.
“You can’t get these in Germany,” he told me with an impish grin, “and they are my most-favorite!”

After educating me on the finer points of food regulations in Germany and the USA he stowed his leprechaun treasures and began to tell me about his plans to return the US in a few months for a holiday with his family.

Since he had a bona-fide U.S. citizen in the seat beside me he began to ask my opinion on the sites, wonders, and cities of the United States;
“We may go out west, is the Grand Canyon as amazing as it looks in photos?”
My reply, “i’ve never been there….”
“Are the Rockies worth the drive?”
“i’ve never been there….”
“Is California really that expensive?”
“i’ve never been there….”
“Do you really see bison in Yellowstone?”
“i’ve never been there….”

There was a long pause as he studied me, some earned disapproval in his eyes,
“Why would you travel to another country when you haven’t even seen your own?”

He had me! Why?

To be fair, the USA is big. Overlaid on Europe it swallows Europe whole. Yet i was not willing to accept that as an excuse. Though at the time i had many, chief of which was the cost of travel. I’ve since traveled thousands of miles across the United States on shoe-string budgets. Sleeping in such posh lodgings as: the back of a moving retal van, scorpion infested scrub-land in New Mexico, behind rest-stops, in motels that bed-bugs had snubbed as too run-down.

There have been many experiences since then that have changed how i view the accessibility of travel, in one’s home country especially. i have learned that once you accept that travel is long periods of very little happening punctuated by moments of transcendence you have found the mindset to travel. i learned that you can travel posh and have great experiences, or you can travel like a vagrant on wheels and have great experiences. i have learned that most of the things that move me deep in my soul (or whatever one calls that intangible part of a human) are not the things that drain a bank account but the rugged spots on planet Earth, the restaurant run by a family, the odd and the weird things that mysteriously rise at the side of the road for reasons that are hard to grasp (like Ozymandus the great in TX, or the House on the Rock in WI, or the Enchanted Highway in ND).

In the decades since that Lucky Charms loving German opened my eyes i’ve crisscrossed my own country many times, and seen a lot of it. 3 states left to go, hundreds of moments left to experience!