Oh, The Places We Would Go!

Travel writing, according to Ibn-e-Batuta “leaves you speechless and then turns you into a storyteller”. You have to weave magic with your words so that your readers can live vicariously through you. Add just enough of yourself to turn it into a unique spin on an experience had by millions. It should be vivid enough that your words jump off the paper, grab your reader by the hand and take them along for the ride. Some of my favorite travel writers are Mark Twain (The Innocents Abroad) and Aldous Huxley (Jesting Pilate), though I can’t really hope to emulate these greats, they are my inspiration.

The perception of the US in my mind has been formed through a steady diet of American literature, cinema, music, and pop culture. If Agent Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks) and Kerouac (On The Road) have taught me anything it’s that freshly baked apple pie and piping hot coffee in a rustic old diner is what Americana is all about.

I’ve always wanted to go to a Blues bar in New Orleans. Blues and psychedelia are my favorite types of music. Where the lights are turned down low as you listen to that familiar riff while a smooth, whiskey-soaked voice laments the bad hand life has dealt it.

I heard Neil Young’s “unknown legend” and instantly knew it was about me. Specifically the line “She was an unknown legend in her time”, and though I don’t have long blond hair, I can totally see myself riding a Harley Davidson through a desert highway. I consider myself a free spirit whose wings have been clipped due to budgetary constraints

I thought about this long and hard. There are tons of places I’d like to visit. The Guggenheim and NY Met, rock’n’roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Burning man in San Francisco, Comic-Con in San Diego, Café Wha? In NY, just because that’s the place where so many great musicians got their break.

If I could’ve been born in a different era it would’ve been the 60’s. The music, the fashion, the whole hippie philosophy speaks to me; karma, positive thinking, oneness with the universe, et al. I love to read, travel, listen to music, write, sketch, paint. I recently bought a typewriter because the only way to write a manuscript is on a typewriter. I also own a beautiful turntable and some priceless Vinyls. I promise you I’m not a hipster, though. Just a really old soul born in the wrong era.

I love visiting places with rich culture and lots of history. I have lead a fairly sheltered life and this will be my opportunity to explore on my own, to meet new people and open up to new possibilities and experiences. I have had some heartbreak in my life, who hasn’t?! But I think now is the time for me to take life by the horns and really live! This could be a life-changing experience for me and at this moment I can think of nothing that would make me happier.