Summer predisposed us to seek out freedom to flee lives day-to-day routines. Where we flee and how we flee is sometimes fixed and sometimes unexpected.
I am venturing on an unplanned journey. One that requires some preparation, but was planned in just a few days. There are many moving parts to this trip and it could not be arranged without the help of a travel agent. More, it could not be arranged solely with the help of my state side travel agent.
I found I needed to convey, in a very short time, something that could be communicated via email, to ensure I would get what I sought from my voyage because this voyage – unlike so many I have taken, requires that I rely on the assistance of a guide once I hit the ground, and what's more a guide must accompany me – virtually the whole way through.
As I grappled with this reality, I wrote the following: Please understand, for me, travel is often about the moments in between, the unexpected, the things not on your agenda that you stumble across and make you relinquish your agenda, the arriving one hour early someplace because you do not know they lay of the land and finding something breathtaking in that moment, the getting lost and finding something surprising in the process, the stranger met who tells you of a secret gem and you go, the things in no travel books, all those things become your moments, your memory, your experiences.
And as I wrote to this stranger who I was trusting to plan a trip that should not be planned in days, but over weeks, if not months - it’s an expedition that requires several planes, some trains, a bus or two, and a boat. I thought about what summer travel means to us all. How we arrange our travel. And what services we rely on to help in the preparation.
Many of us have summer routines, vacation homes that have been in our families since childhood or homes created once we have our own children. Some of us take long trips, others short jaunts. There are instances we go far away, and times we stay quite close.
I have friends who like me have decided to plan something last minute.
So as I embark, and try to catch my breath at 12,000 ft above sea level, I wish you a wonderful August and look forward to speaking with you, come September.
