I’ve imagined what my plan to travel North America will look like. I will take my home with me and traverse the paths less traveled. I will wind through the country on iconic roads, like the Blue Ridge Parkway and Route 66. I’ll hike in Banff and see the northern lights in Yellowknife. I’ll try to visit every national park and monument; Acadia, Pinnacles … Rocky Mountains. Maybe I’ll go horseback riding in the Dakota Badlands or photograph the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
I had a friend ask, “But won’t you be lonely?”
Maybe. Today, I see this as a solo adventure. It’s a little bit scary, traveling alone. The unfamiliar puts a heaviness in my step; a reluctance in my ability to move forward. But the rewards of pushing through that trepidation are great. I feel more open to starting a conversation with a stranger who sometimes becomes a friend. Those conversations have steered me to sublime places only the locals know. On a cool morning, I can fully absorb the stillness, with birdsong adding musicality to the peaceful silence. I can read, uninterrupted. I can go whichever direction I feel the pull.
So I’m afraid, and yes, I might occasionally be lonely. But like so many times before, I have a bold inner voice that insistently pushes … just go. Just. Go. And that inner voice has never let me down.
This sounds like an amazing plan to look forward to Deb. You won’t be lonely…you have the ability to make fast friends wherever you go more than anyone I know. Plus, for the times when you are alone, I always tell people that being alone/traveling alone is completely different from being lonely.
When I went to India by myself, I met an Indian family at the lodge my first night there and they basically adopted me, which wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t alone. Because of them, I visited different parks than I had planned on.
When I went to Botswana by myself, I made good friends with a couple from Scotland at my last lodge (we had met a few days earlier when we were on the same flight from the Maun airport to the Okavango Delta and then ended up at the same lodge in the Linyanti area). On my last full day in Botswana, they invited me to go on a full day game drive in their private vehicle. It was the only day I saw wild dogs, which was the main reason I went to Botswana. This wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t traveling alone.
People told me I was crazy for driving around alone in South Africa. But it was so freeing! I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. And I never felt lonely. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but life is too short to postpone your plans until a time when it also fits the schedule of someone else 🙂
Lisa, you get it! A lot of people don’t understand, but I know you do. To twist the lyrics of an old song a bit, If traveling alone is wrong, I don’t wanna be right. Cheers, fellow adventurer!
Cheers!