Why I Can’t Travel Like I Used To...

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JBloggs

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[COLOR= rgb(68, 68, 68)]Why I Can’t Travel Like I Used To: A couple weeks ago I wrote a pretty popular article about the benefits of slo... [/COLOR]http://t.co/zFs2sor0
JB - I thought you would appreciate this, and it mayhelp diagnose the "Stepford Syndrome" I am always talking about. Those who are weekend destinations do not get this, but those of you who have say guests on a 2 week trip to the US and you are a mere one night of that trip, totally get this.
We can market "the slow road" on our blogs/website. Majority of our guests (at this inn) do not even see this part of the country AT ALL. They say they do, but I guarantee they do not, and yes I take it personal, they have NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE MISSING!
 
I see these people all day when I walk downtown. They are hustling and bustling to 'git 'er done' and they never see the beauty of the surrounding countryside. They are crabby, on their cellphones, 'Where are you??? You were supposed to meet me...' and not enjoying their time away from home.
When they leave, they find the fastest way to the interstate and they go home, unsatisified with their 'break' from the routine. Why? Because they brought the routine with them.
 
I know an innkeeper in Maine who is also a blogger. I share this story with our guests on ocassion how people go to her town to shop and meanwhile on her blog she shares these amazing lighthouses, state parks with beach access, birding trails, lobster boats and scenery galore. But the people, they want to shop the sales and that is that.
I don't want to tell anyone how to live, but dang it wake up and smell the coffee people! You have so much and you do not see it before your very eyes!
Fred First a local author, photog and naturalist wrote that book I have shared here before "The slow road home" where he talks about this. People don't get it, why do you want to live in the mountains? What is wrong with you!
 
We get this all the time with conference people "Oh we have never been here, Oh there is such cool stuff here (told by me) Blah Blah" never come back though"
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to me anyway. I just bought a bargain book today £3.99 ($8.00) hard back all the stately homes of North Yorkshire (ie all within 45 mins drive of here) so am going to do a series of blog articles ie a house per article but not all at once to break it up. When I finally have some time.
 
We get this all the time with conference people "Oh we have never been here, Oh there is such cool stuff here (told by me) Blah Blah" never come back though"
sad_smile.gif
to me anyway. I just bought a bargain book today £3.99 ($8.00) hard back all the stately homes of North Yorkshire (ie all within 45 mins drive of here) so am going to do a series of blog articles ie a house per article but not all at once to break it up. When I finally have some time..
That's a really good idea! I pick up a lot of the tourist info stuff guests leave and then blog about those things.
 
In the olden days (BC = before computer), I used to write to State Tourism offices for info packets and get all the info I could about what was between here and there (final destination before heading home) and back again - always a different route. I wuld plot our route by what there was to see and do (never an amusement park). We did history and experience - ie tour a lead mine and a gold mine stop at a festival if we could (brats festival in Ohio).
Our last "family" vacation included (not in order) the cog railroad to the top of Mt Washington, Morristown, NJ, Valley Forge (we had done Gettysburg another year), Philadelphia, Boston (took Beantown trolley), Concord, Springfield, Saratoga, Fort Ticonderoga, and the final week of that month-long journey was a 6-day windjammer cruise off the coast of Maine. The monkey wrench on that trip was the first 5 days had to be spent waiting to see if my Daddy was going to live or die as I was informed 2 days before starting the trip that he was in ICU with either a stroke or a heart attack - they were not sure which - but he definitely had pneumonia. He lived - just had pneumonia so bad it scared him into quitting smoking, was his usual uncooperative self, so we went on with the trip. He died 10 years later in my Library.
Out trips were to have the kids see a bit of what was there to be seen. Sometimes if they were really interested in a place, we spent more time there than anticipated (I had figured a half day at Fort Ticonderoga but it happened to be the day of the BAR battle and the kids wanted to stay - so we did).
Now WE can't travel as we did because DH cannot. But I did take the slow road when I went to Europe - crammed in a lot but took a month to do it. I understand the one-nighter because we would hone in on what to see (known to have gone 20 miles off course to see a Daniel Boone cabin) and move on to the next but we usually traveled the 2-lane instead of Interstates and looked at wrong turns as taking a detour. Our trips turned one kid into a history teacher.
Edited to add: I kept a file cabinet drawer with this info and was the office "travel agent" of what to see between here and wherever. I was invited to be called to give input on a travel program in Chicago when calling to say everyone was missing the best place when giving info of what was between Chicago and Williamsburg and I said WV. When asked what was there, I gave such a list of just the places I had visited that they called me back for another program the next week - and I had my list ready!.
 
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