Are We There Yet?

Thought I’d take a few minutes and list some of my favorite travel quotations and some culled from websites that resonated with me regarding my upcoming voyage.

JOURNEYS:

v   “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” -- Susan Sontag

The world cruise on which I’m about to embark will take care of some of the “everywhere” in this quotation –we will hit all seven continents, but sadly, only fleetingly.  There are still so many places I will probably never get to visit.  My advice to young people – travel while you can, stay home later.

v  "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." -- St. Augustine

This quotation came up in a conversation with a friend yesterday.  I’ve actually had a copy of this quotation for many years, ever since I decided it should go on my gravestone, one shaped like a book with a world map engraved upon it.  Up to this point, though, I have not traveled “the world”.  That’s all about to change on Friday as the Ms Amsterdam departs the USA.

v   "Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by." — Robert Frost

My mother was an artist, and I asked if she could paint this saying, a long-time favorite of mine, an indication of how my life has evolved.  She did – it’s a wonderful painting of birch woods in the fall, a small sign marker at the junction of a lesser traveled wooded path, and a more traveled gravel road to a farmhouse and barn and mountains in the distance.  She captured the saying perfectly – thanks, Mom.

According to the principles of fung shui, because of the split in the roads, the painting signifies relationships splitting apart.  It’s true.  Not long after the picture was finished, I left to travel full-time in the RV.  I tried to loan the painting to someone who needed to split from someone, but she wouldn’t take it.  I personally think it would have solved many problems for her.  The painting still hangs in my bedroom – where, when I return home, I always seem to be ready to start traveling again. Coincidence?

v   "For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." -- Robert Louis Stevenson

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I think I was born with a “restless soul”.  I also think I passed that gene along to at least one grandson, who posted recently on Facebook, that he liked to just get in the car and drive – it didn’t matter where, it was the simple act of driving, of traveling, that was pleasurable.  Yup, I totally get that.

v  "The journey not the arrival matters." -- T. S. Eliot

On a wooden heart-shaped plaque I had in my RV, it reads: “it’s the journey, not the destination that matters”.  Six of one, half dozen of another – arrival/destination.  Means the same thing to me.

v  “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.” –Bumper Sticker

The old adage about packing half the clothes and twice the cash follows that bumper sticker, I do believe.  Off to the bank tomorrow!

v  "Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter." -- Izaak Walton

With a voyage as long as this world cruise, and most of the people doing the entire voyage, not to mention those who have been on multiple world cruises, good company should abound.  I am also fortunate to have a good friend who decided to accompany me on this voyage. 

v  “Not all those who wander are lost.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien

RVers say this a lot when they are taking “scenic detours”, haha

v  “One of the gladdest moments of human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy”. -- Sir Richard Burton

Substitute “woman” for “man”, and I can identify with this quotation.

v  "I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine." -- Caskie Stinnett

Ahh, so that’s the reason I travel?

v  “I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full”. –Lord Dunsany

Interesting – primordial urges. Works for me!

TRAVEL BY SHIP:

v   “One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”  --Andre Gide

v  "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

v  “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for”. --William Shedd

v  “The sea is dangerous and its storms terrible, but these obstacles have never been sufficient reason to remain ashore ... unlike the mediocre, intrepid spirits seek victory over those things that seem impossible ... it is with an iron will that they embark on the most daring of all endeavors ... to meet the shadowy future without fear and conquer the unknown”. --Ferdinand Magellan

v  "Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned." -- Samuel Johnson

v  “The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.” --Amelia E. Barr

v  "Long voyages, great lies." -- Italian proverb

SEASICKNESS:

v   “The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea”. --Isak Dinesen

v   “The only cure for seasickness is to sit on the shady side of an old brick church in the country”. --Author Unknown

I’d rather take my chances in a lower deck, amid-ship, inside cabin, or on-deck facing the horizon with fresh ocean breezes in my face, or pumped full of Dramamine and sailing the seven seas than to sit idly in the country.

TRAVEL BY PLANE:

v   “There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror”. --Orson Welles

Absolutely!  I second that!

v  “A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place. A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse… and thinks of home.” – Carl Burns.

The World:

v  “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open”. --Jawaharlal Nehru

v   “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

Yuck!  Really?  Yeah, probably.

v  "If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home." -- James Michener

v  “Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.” --Dave Barry

So, there you are.  The clock’s ticking – only one full day left before I leave home on this great adventure – where, according to these travel quotations,  people talk funny, where the food and water are suspect, where the country smells bad, where the sea is dangerous, where my routines will be disrupted – I can’t wait!!  How exciting!!