Prisoner of Hopes

Tag: travel

  • Don’t Overstay Your Welcome: Travel Goals

    I was always taught not to overstay your welcome. This colloquial saying communicates that you should always leave before your host tires of your presence. I generally like having company, but it is hard for people with different schedules and routines to coexist. In a campground, a diverse group of people are living in a…

  • Can You Help?: Travel Goals

    When we signed up to be a campground host, I wasn’t fully aware that part of the job would be managing crisis. I should have expected it, but mostly I thought about cheerfully sharing camping stories and answering guest questions. I guess it is a good thing that I have decades of prior experience as…

  • Campground Host: Travel Goals

    This month, instead of a grand overseas adventure, we decided to see what it would be like to serve as a campground host in a Missouri State Park. I love to camp and I love the woods, but will I still be in love at the end of the month? My morning ritual is to…

  • Train Travel in America: Travel Goals

    All over the world, we travel on trains. Generally speaking, we find trains relaxing, efficient and easy to navigate. In fact, I am an advocate for expanding train services. They provide valuable public transport and reduce car and air traffic pollution. Safe, affordable, and environmentally friendly transportation should be a national priority in my book.…

  • Rural Road Trips: Camp fire coffee

    There is nothing quite like an early morning cup of coffee cooked over a camp fire. So hot it burns your tongue and full of smoky goodness, it is happiness in a cup. I get up early (5:30). It is peaceful and still. So far it’s just me and the birds and an occasional squirrel.…

  • The currency of currency: Travel Goals

    Currency: the quality of being generally accepted or in use. The U.S. dollar (and also the Euro), as we were to find out, is the ultimate currency. ..at least in South America. After arrival in any country, one of first stops we make is a bank or currency exchange. In recent years it has become…

  • Unexpected Encounters: Travel Goals

    When I was a teenager, I went to the science center IMAX. There, on the giant screen, I experienced scenes from the Andes and heard about a plane crash that left people stranded for 72 days. Through footage of the wreckage, I imagined the horrors of trying to survive on the side of a mountain…

  • Cruise culture: Travel Goals

    We said we would never cruise, and yet I found myself on a Holland America ship for thirty five days in order to sail around South America. My hesitation for cruise travel had nothing to do with the ship, the sea, the time, or the money. I dreaded the people. I didn’t want to feel…

  • Travel Goals: Excess

    I just saw an article on women overpacking when they travel. The piece also suggested that packing deterred some people from traveling. I will admit that trying to decide what to pack for a trip is an exercise in self control. But I pride myself in being able to pack for a two week international…

  • Dreaming of a Spring awakening

    This winter has been sluggish. I always struggle in the grey, dark days to find meaning and purpose. I get up and read. Slowly going through the motions of the day, I long to be outside and for sunshine. It is hard to be motivated when hibernation seems the best option. And so I dream.…