In these strange times, travel is hard to plan, difficult to execute, scary to embark upon. I always have used dreams of travel to alleviate stagnation. I read somewhere that the anticipation of a trip is more of a joy than the actual trip. Making travel journals with photos and notes of where to go and what to do always preceded any big trip I had. Then while on the trip, I would fill in pages of photos and activities. I treasure these travel journals and go back time and again to enjoy those adventures. Memories are preserved and kept alive for things I long ago would have totally forgotten.
After being homebound for two years, we did venture on two short journeys - a birthday trip for a long weekend, and a weekend to New Jersey to see precious grandkids (ages 1 and 2.)
Now with new variants of Covid lurking, new mask wearing restrictions, and inevitable travel plans halted, I am forced to get my fix from books.
Here is one fabulous book I am enjoying: "Eighty Days, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bishland's History Making Race Around the World" by Matthew Goodman.
The year is 1889, and two rival newspapers challenged two young women journalists to race around the world in opposite directions, trying to beat Jules Vernes' fictional Phileas Fogg's "Around the World in Eighty Days."
One of the young women got to meet Jules Vernes and he was delighted in her adventure. I was lucky enough to spend time in his hometown of Nantes a few years ago, so I loved that he got to meet someone actually attempting his outrageously ambitious idea of going around the globe in less than three months.
How is it that in less that 130 years, we have gotten to the point where we expect to hop on a plane and be wherever we want in less than a day?
This book makes me want to book passage on a freighter and leisurely explore the globe. Will that even happen again in this day of viruses?
In the meantime, the book is a great escape.
Here's to future journeys.
