'Just Because'

I have been busy trying to get my A to Z cities together (I now have all 26 letters mapped out) and I remembered a question posed to me last year.  "Why do you travel so much?"

Wow.  The answer is "just because".  There are so many places to see.  And since there are so many places to see, it means you need to travel often.  And yet, I do not consider myself someone who travels 'a lot'.

When I travel, I love that I can visit very old churches and residences and marvel at the architecture.  Of course, most of this is seen in Europe.  Here in America we tend to tear down anything that is old.  Like 50 years old, let alone 500 or more.

I enjoy sampling the local foods.  I grew up eating Polish and Italian foods.  But, the way the locals prepare the food is often different than what you may have tasted at home.

And even travelling here in North America, there are beautiful vistas of mountains that I'd never see here in Michigan.  When I first moved to West Bloomfield, I met a woman who said she had never traveled more than 30 miles from home and doubted there was anything else she needed to see.

Even now, it seems as though every time I plan a trip folks want to know why I am going wherever I am going.  When I mentioned to anyone that I was going to Russia, I got the inevitable "Why are you going there?".  Same thing happened last year when I said I was going to spend two weeks in Germany.

I don't think I've ever asked someone about their travel choices.  But last year someone actually said to me that they had no idea that Germany was on my travel bucket list.  Hmmm.  How would they know?

I've had a desire to travel ever since my aunt and her husband went off to Italy to visit family back in 1953.  I still remember saying good-bye to them at the old Willow Run airport.  I remember the home movies when they returned.  And I knew that someday I wanted to be the person who traveled to foreign shores.  (I first made it to Italy in 1969.)

I remember the first flight I ever took on an airplane.  I was a senior in college in 1967 and was travelling to Philadelphia for my sorority's national convention.  I still remember walking out to the plane behind Lenore Romney (Mitt's Mom).  No covered walkways and big jets in those days.  The travel bug had taken hold and as soon as I graduated I was off to the Bahamas.  A year later I was to spend ten weeks in Europe.

It makes me wonder if folks need a reason to go someplace or have no idea what exists in those countries.  Surely the remark is not just a conversation starter?  Maybe so.

There are so many places I have seen and so many I would still love to visit.  My journey seems as though it is just beginning.  I've only seen ten percent of the world.  I'd better live a very, very long time to see the rest.