A penny saved...

Last night I was at a family Christmas party, and now that I am “in my 20s”, I was shunned from the “kids” group and was told by the youngest that “I wasn’t a teenager anymore”, I was “a woman.” Once I got over the hilarity of that statement, I accepted the fact that I was officially a new member at “the adult table,” and as such, missed the whole process of the under-20 crowd getting riled up about the approaching present-giving.

When I finally realized that the chaos in the living room was related to opening gifts, I calmly, albeit excitedly, walked over to the living room to receive my gift from Santa. The ever-so-practical Santa had deemed it appropriate this year to bestow upon me the gift of… an electronic coin counter. While my brother wasn’t too thrilled by his technologically advanced piggy bank (the other boys got iPod gift certificates and fishing poles), I was absolutely delighted!

I’m sure you, like me, have hundreds of random coins lying around the house, car, inside the cracks of the couch, etc. But now, with my new handy-dandy coin counter, not only will I have a place to keep all my extra change, it will count it for me too! What a perfect way to have a visibly growing travel fund… every time I see a coin, I will run to pick it up and put it in my jar, envisioning all the places I might go once it is full (or rather, has been filled and emptied multiple times).

As soon as I ripped open the gift wrapping paper, I knew that I would be decorating my jar with all the places I want to go. I’m going to print off pictures from the internet, paste on old plane ticket stubs, and wait for my coffers to fill. Every little coin I see now gives me so much joy because I know exactly where it’s going: into my travel fund! Being able to see exactly where my extra money is going keeps me on the straight path of saving. If, instead of spending the little extra change I have, I put it right into my jar, it will gradually grow and assist me in my trekking endeavors! After all, a penny saved is a penny that can be spent on a plane ticket!

If you need a last minute Christmas gift, or just want one for yourself, you can find a coin counting jar at Kohls or order it offline at http://www.amazon.com/Summit-ZMJ01-NI-Electronic-Money-Jar/dp/B0001CU1QA. Make sure to decorate it with the places you want to go… it makes your travel dreams that much more real!

Top 20 Travel Quotes

OK, so I know I talked about starting Top Ten lists, but travel quotes are just too good to limit them to 10! So here are 20 of my all-time favorite travel quotes. They have the ability to inspire, comfort, motivate, and invigorate... I hope that at least a few will speak to you!

1. "If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home." James Michener
   
   
2. "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." Robert Louis Stevenson



3. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson
   
   
4. "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." Mark Twain
   
   
5. "To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries." Aldous Huxley
   


6. "When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money." Susan Heller
   
   
7. "People don’t take trips – trips take people." John Steinbeck
   


8. "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." St. Augustine
   
   
9. "The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see." G.K. Chesterton
   


10. "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by." Robert Frost
    


11. "Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken." Frank Herbert
    


12. "I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine." Caskie Stinnett
    


13. "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." Robert Louis Stevenson
    


14. "Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind." Seneca
    


15. "Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to." Alan Keightley
    


16. "A traveler without observation is a bird without wings." Moslih Eddin Saadi
    


17. "Experience, travel - these are as education in themselves." Euripides
    


18. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain



19. "The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them." Amelia Barr
    
    And of course, my favorite:
    
    
20. "I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list." Susan Sontag
    

If you have favorites of your own, please post them in the comments section!

And so it begins...

In my mind, travel and living are synonymous. Ever since I was born, I have been in a constant state of movement, whether it be preparing for a trip, being on a trip, or coming back from one and anticipating the next. While I have always appreciated every opportunity that I've had to travel, it has only been recently that I have realized how deep my passion runs.

Traveling allows you to be in a perpetual state of change, and it is change that I crave. There is no getting bored, no tiring of the "same-old, same-old" when you are voyaging. The insatiable thirst for learning allows us to experience cultures and gain knowledge that can't be learned in a classroom or by reading a book. There is always something to discover, something different to try, and someone new to meet. And it is that freshness, that constant possibility of novelty that is the source of my love of traveling.

I wanted to start this blog to be a source of all things travel! Upcoming features include top ten lists, travel tips, interviews with veteran travelers, and much more! I hope that through this blog, I'll be able to pass my love for traveling on to you and inspire you to begin journeying! If you have any suggestions, comments, or special requests, PLEASE feel free to email me at melissamlandry@hotmail.com.

Happy trails!