Prisoner of Hopes

Category: travels

  • Departures and Arrival: Travel Goals Portugal

    Departures and Arrival: Travel Goals Portugal

    When we travel, I find that I spend a lot of mental energy playing endless versions of “how to beat the airline” in my head. It starts with trying to decide which flights to pick and which ticket options we need. I only have a few requirements: the tickets must be affordable, we need to…

  • Travel Goals: Real Life Adventures of Ordinary People

    Travel Goals: Real Life Adventures of Ordinary People

    Travel goals. Perhaps because my parents made regular vacation a priority, even when money was tight. . .perhaps because my husband loves travel as much as I do. . . Whatever the reason, a life goal of mine has been to travel the world. Little by little, my husband and I have sought experiences that…

  • Not in Kansas Anymore

    Not in Kansas Anymore

    It is no secret that I love to travel. Each adventure changes me. I believe it makes me more empathetic and allows me to think more broadly than my otherwise limited experience would. I now have a great sympathy for visitors who struggle to understand our customs and strange ways of being. Even the simple…

  • May the Road Rise Up to Meet You: Travel Goals Ireland

    May the Road Rise Up to Meet You: Travel Goals Ireland

    “Hands on the wheel. Eyes on the road. Don’t overdrive your abilities.” I’ve had plenty of driving under my belt, and yet I still remember my parents advice from when I was learning to drive. (This is because Dad still gives advice from the passenger seat when I drive him anywhere, even though I have…

  • Fly the Friendly Skies?: Travel Goals Ireland

    Fly the Friendly Skies?: Travel Goals Ireland

    Travel is a passion. The anticipation makes me giddy. New places and new faces call to me.  There is very little about travel that I do not enjoy….except airlines. Airlines make me miserable. If there is a way to make humans more inconvenienced, more anxious, and more impoverished; they have incorporated it.  I don’t fault…

  • Of Outhouses and Other Surprises When Nature Calls

    Of Outhouses and Other Surprises When Nature Calls

    Bathrooms. Lavatories. Loos. Water Closets. Toilets. Powder Rooms. Out Houses. Johns. Ladies Rooms. Mens Rooms. Cans. So many names and none of them exactly topics for polite company. This morning, however, I find myself thinking of bathrooms. When I was a kid, my brother used to throw a fit to use the bathroom everywhere we…

  • Stress Test: Rural Road Trips Nebraska

    Stress Test: Rural Road Trips Nebraska

    Prisoner of hope makes a great slogan, however, some days remind me that hope is something you must commit to, you must chain yourself to.  Today was one of those days. We broke camp the night before since they were calling for rain.  But when I woke up there was no rain.  So I started…

  • Echoes: Rural Road Trips Nebraska

    Echoes: Rural Road Trips Nebraska

    Central Nebraska.  Corn and tractors.  Tractors and corn.  At Homestead National Park, hopefulness and despair were on full display.  The settlers who came by the thousands to homestead persisted out of stubborn hope for a better life.  They came with almost nothing and built a life out of hostile soil.  Cutting sod for houses.  Using…

  • Moments to Savor: Travel Goals

    Moments to Savor: Travel Goals

    Unexpected pleasures.  Little joys.  Small moments in time.  This is what a day consists of… if you are paying attention.  I wander around the campsite and pick up sticks.  This is a necessary scavenger hunt to start the fire that will yield me coffee.  Carefully, placed sticks and some dryer lint start the morning fire. …

  • ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Rural Road Trips Nebraska

    ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Rural Road Trips Nebraska

    And so, we set out on our journey.  Part celebration of the end of a long career and part hopeful new beginnings.  Retirement…end or beginning?  I choose to dwell on the beginnings.  All the packing and the planning ends the moment the journey begins.  RV in motion. Truck in tow.  We take to the backroads,…