TheAmericanTravelProject
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Reading Matt’s post about Bucket List travel and Kenny’s post about getting to the National Parks made me think about my own travel goals and how much they have changed over the years. I had decided a few years ago that I want to make it to all 50 of the United States. What I had originally envisioned was trips to every fun city in the US (and even visits to those that kinda suck) with lots of beaches and amusement parks sprinkled in, here and there. I hadn’t really thought through how and why I would justify making a trip to states that don’t really have major cities or anything really notably fun to do. I figured that I would figure it all out at some point. Maybe by getting in a car and just driving for a couple of months to be done with it so I could move on to bigger and better (travel) things. And then I started visiting the US National Parks. And I fell in love. With the National Parks, I mean.
This is not your usual National Park love story (is there one?). Because it started out with me pretty much hating being outside unless it involved a beach or a pool or some sort of man-made stuff to look at/do. Even when running for exercise, I preferred a treadmill while watching Oprah (yes, I’m old). I enjoyed hiking, to some extent, especially when it was in the Swiss Alps or somewhere equally amazing. But I don’t like bugs or being cold or peeing in the woods. I also thought that nature was sort of boring (unless it involved the ocean, then I thought it was great). I didn’t really know what I was missing because I had never been anywhere really truly breathtakingly beautiful. At that point I had been to more fabulous places in Europe than I had in my own country. I was the opposite of ethnocentric/xenophobic. But I like a challenge, and I like to try new things. And so began our planning for our first big National Parks trip. We pretty much went with the “go big or go home” philosophy & decided to visit a ton of National and State Parks all in one summer. I have written about many, but not all, of them (look under the Destinations tab above).
That trip began my love affair with the US National Parks, and I have a new goal of visiting all of them (to my husband: sorry that you are reading about this goal for the first time while reading this post, but I just decided on this one about 10 minutes ago. Therefore, this is now your new goal as well). So far, we have been to 18 of the parks on this list. We have plans in place to visit more. My new friend Bonnie from the Frugal Travel Lawyer gave me some great Yellowstone/Grand Tetons tips as I am planning our next huge National Parks adventure. So far our Summer 2015 trip will include at least: Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt, Yellowstone, and Grand Tetons.
I have become much more outdoorsy. I love hiking now, and we even bought a tent (and really comfy air mattresses because I’m not that outdoorsy). I have learned so much more than I imagined as we have visited the parks (and the states) throughout the USA, and I can’t wait to continue. Although our next 2 trips are Jamaica and Aruba (gotta have those drinks on the beach too).
The post I’m the Outdoorsy Type (people change) appeared first on The American Travel Project.
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