2  | 

I found this helpful Thank You! Your vote will be tallied soon!

See your own backroads

I feel fortunate to have enjoyed many travel opportunities, but there is something I've noticed in every community where I've lived:  people do not know their own town. 

As a former Navy person who also grew up in a Navy family, I don't quite know what to do when I'm not uprooted every 2-3 years.  My Mom and Dad taught me how to make myself at home as quickly as possible -- go exploring in my new backyard and don't miss anything. There's always lots to see and before you know it, the moving van will pull up to the house again and my time's up.

I've moved into both US and overseas communities the same way every time;  buy a good guidebook, subscribe to the local paper (for the upcoming events calendar) and act like a tourist in my new hometown.  Itineraries are made, and my family is schlepped from one happening or attraction to another.  Many times I'll hear the comment from a local; "Oh, I've lived here forever and never been there/done that."  They just don't have a sense of urgency because they know they won't be leaving anytime soon, or they think their town is boring.

As a writer, I'm often asked where I get my article ideas, and I respond that "I just look around me."  Sure, I write about travel, but not about some glittery resort in Aruba (unless someone wants to pay to send me there!) 

I write about what I know and the places I've lived.

A perfect Florida backroad.  A donut shop/bakery near my house.  One of the biggest annual events in another former hometown -- drag races.  Some islands where the local Dutch take their beach vacations (when I lived in the Netherlands.)  A particularly attractive Texas state park.

When I lived in Beaumont, Texas as a teenager, I learned about the unique music and food of Cajun country, because the Louisiana border was nearby.  Nowadays, lots of folks are familiar with the unique ethnic pocket of people descended from French Canadians who settled the area in the late 1700s, but back then I thought my parents were crazy to drag me to a festival about Cajuns and Louisiana.  How smart they were to get out and learn more about this interesting group, right where we lived. 

Something that is just a day trip, a weekend getaway or a "one-tank-of-gas" journey can offer your children all of the good things about exploration and fewer of the hassles like the airport security drill or strange food. 

You really don't have to get all exotic to be a traveler, you just have to slow down and be curious, because the most interesting happenings are not necessarily in another time zone, another state or even another county.

Update 5 April 2007:  These bloggers for the UK's Guardian worked a neat home swap right in their own city -- great idea.   The "slow travel" concept (of parking yourself in one spot for vacation) is featured in USA Today, and you may also want to check out the Slow Travel Web site.

_{Technorati tags:  travel, family travel}