What to take, What to leave?

What will I bring? Well as a being to travel, I think that there are necessities that are essential to traveling.  As I begin to pack, for a 10 day excursion of Colorado, there are definitely a few key things I need to bring.  My first thought is adventure.  This generally means comfortable clothes that I can move in.  I want to explore the landscape.  As I have mentioned a few times before, differences in the landscape is the first thing I notice.  Though I am nowhere near the present day environmentalist “hippie”  but I cannot wait to walk through the terrain, breath in the air, and feel a since of freedom! This definitely calls for the appropriate shoes, attire, and equipment.  An old pair of Asics will do the trick I think as well as a pair of warn jeans and an over sized long sleeve shirt. 

Next on my list is a camera. Travelers are often times filled with the excitement, or thrill.  They strive to find the next high on their next adventure.  However, when you find time between your trips extending that trill tends to fade.  I want to capture every moment of my trip.  I want to be able to relive and relive and relive my travels. I could write journals upon journal about my trip but they say a picture is worth a thousand words for a reason. Being able to capture a specific moment in time has always seems so surreal to me. The fact that I can take this very moment, capture every sensation I am seeing and quite possibly feeling, and reproduce it so that in years to come I may be filled with the same excitement  I felt while taking that picture. Amazing.     

The last thing that I want to bring on my trip is openness.  I want to be open minded, I want to be open to the world, I want to be open to others I encounter, but most importantly, I want to be open the thoughts and feelings that I have.  I want to be able to say I am doing this today, and do with. I don’t want to think of risks or a pros and cons list.  I want to take chance and do something just for the simple story of ‘I did that once’.  I want to be able to talk to the locals without a care in the world.  I want to hear their adventures that will hopefully spark mine.  I want to be able to take in the picturesque scenery and feel alive.  I want to look around at the Colorado Mountains and know that the world is a beautiful place.  I want to pack up the person I was and unpack the person I am meant to be. 

Holy Cow, Batman!

              Travel writing is done with some many things in mind.  We travel for various reason and there for we write for just as many.  The two types of traveling I have noticed throughout this class is, people travel for information or they travel for pleasure.  When traveling for pleasure they are doing so to invoke some kind of emotion.  On the other hand, traveling for information is a way to drowned ourselves in another culture. 

We see this type of emotional travel when looking at Pico Iyer.  His piece, “Why We Travel” shows his reflection during his traveling experiences.  He talks frequently about how travel changes who he is, and why he chooses to travel.  Iyer states, ‘The first great joy of traveling is simply the luxury of leaving all my beliefs and certainties at home” Iyer does a wonderful job of bringing a sense of fantasy to his readers through his writings.  He draws his readers in to his writings by allowing them to feel as if they are on the journey with him. 

Unlike the frivolous fantasies that Iyer creates for his readers, Henry Shukman does the exact opposite.  Shukman is driven by facts and is a much more formal writer than Iyer.  Iyer’s writings are filled with emotions where as Shukman’s are emotionless.  Henry Shukman’s rattles off information about events that took place in Chernobly as if he were a scientific statistician.    Each piece of his work is written to provide his readers with the most scientific information that is often reported in a matter of fact manner.  Shukman writes down his experience as they happen, moment by moment.  Shukman writes, “Ivan the son is busy wiping down the table, spreading out sheets of newspaper for all the foodstuffs: eggs from chickens pecking under our feet, tomatoes from the garden, bread, a bowl of tiny forest raspberries, a whole dried river fish, crystallized and orange from its time smoking in a homemade stove.”  Although he is noted as being a very factual writer, Shukman also takes note of his observations of people, places and events that happen around him.  He does so in a manner that allows the reader to fill his shoes and to make their own judgments. 

Though these writers seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum, they have a lot in common.  Shukman writes of bloodshed in Chernobly, fact by fact by fact, yet allows readers to discover their own feelings.  Iyer, on the other hand, gives his reader a majestic travel that allows them to be filled with the mushy-gushy feelings he feels during his trip.  Overall, though these writers do differ  their types of writings are needed in the travel writing genre.   

Borders & Inspiring Writing

As we dive into a discussion about the different borders, the first to come to mind are both the physical and mental borders we cross while traveling.  The writers we have talked about have definitely faced these same crossing.  Mark Twain wrote about a fictional travel out west where he described every moment of his travels.  As he traveled, he began to discover the world around him. He was engulfed by the undiscovered environment he found himself in.  I am this way when I travel.  I am so consumed by the colors, the landscape, the crops, and the animals in the “new world” around me.  While traveling, I am constantly trying to find the differences in the world I know and the world I’ve just discovered.  Though nowhere is considered undiscovered, each new place I travel to is undiscovered to me.

 I have been to a handful of places and each new one is always better than the last.  My most memorable border crossing is when we physically cross the border from Ohio into Kentucky, on our way to Florida.  I am from a small town where corn fields, back roads, and the slight hum of old country music coming through the radio brightens my soul.  Once I hit the terrain of Kentucky, there is a calming feeling that frees my soul.  When this happens, I don’t have a care in the world.  My only worry is taking in as much of the beauty in the world around me. Though Mark Twain’s adventure is a little more rigorous then a roads trip to Florida through the winding roads of Kentucky,    I believe he felt this feeling as well.  Though there were fears in traveling to an unknown world, looking and taking in the terrain around you is impossible to miss. Russell also talks about these types of adventures in her travels.  Though her writings tend to be in a league all of their own, she is always searching for the next big adventure.  She does mention the fears she encounters but nothings will stop her from traveling.  These are all ideas that I hope to bring into my own travelogue. I really want to highlight what I am feeling as I am taking in the beautiful Colorado terrain within my writings. 

 

The other border that I think is very important to mention is the crossing of mental borders.  These borders are the ones that are based on reflection, discovering a new area that makes you reflect. We see this, especially when we look at  Kapuscinski.  He does not care about where or how he crosses a border,  it was about simply taking the steps to do so. He refers to crossing the border as a transcendent act. For him, crossing all sorts of borders was something that he has always wanted to do. Simply for the sake of doing it. He was always looking for the next adventure to claim.   Crossing mental borders often times makes me feel uneasy. As I mentioned, I am from a small town and I am a huge Cincinnati Reds' fan.  No matter how many times I find myself in Great American Ball Park, there is always a culture shock, when I cross the mental border into Cincinnati.  Seeing a large amount of people flood the sidewalks and streets always makes me feel agitated. I automatically become more cautious of my personal belongings and become more aware of my surroundings. The same goes when I see panhandlers and homeless on the streets.  This sight isn’t one that I am familiar with; I’m use to seeing tractors and hay flooding the streets.  The occasional animal may come to my back door step looking for a snack, but never a human.  Crossing mental borders is very important to my writing as wells.  Being a self-proclaimed newbie to traveling, and writing for that matter, understanding how this may affect me both emotional and spiritually is very important. 

Peace, Love, and Travel More.