Traveling On My Own

Traveling On My Own

In the beginning, the music played, I sang, the sun was shining and the excitement of breaking free of routine and visiting my daughter at college filled me with joy. I was on an adventure! I thought my journey would be relatively worry free and similar to an earlier visit to Champaign where my days were spent writing while Arielle was in class and my evenings were spent chatting with Arielle and catching up on movies. Oh, this trip was  different! Very,very different!

I’ve never been nervous to travel alone. It feels familiar. As early as first and second grade I remember riding my bike on daily explorations of the different apartment complexes my family lived in. By the time I was twelve I flew stand-by to visit relatives. Sometimes if the plane was booked I sat stranded in an airport for hours. When I was seventeen I traveled overseas with a group of teens and found myself lost in London. There were no cell phones and I wasn’t sure of the name of the hotel where I was staying. I remember the panic I felt in that moment when I looked up from the sidewalk painting that caught my eye and realized no one knew I stopped. The girls I was with were gone! I was completely alone in a crowd. My panic turned to laughter. How ridiculous! I was lost in another country! Eventually, I found my way back when I asked a cab driver for help. “Sir, could you help me find my hotel? I believe it’s called the Elizabeth something…”

He replied “You naughty, naughty girl.” Then he drove me right to the hotel.

The most grand and most idiotic mistake I made in my teens was getting on a plane for LA with no plan for where I was going to live or even stay for the night. I got off the plane and into a cab and said “Please take me to the beach.” To which he said. “What beach?” I asked for a recommendation. Imagine being a teen just boarding a plane for a big city and figuring everything was sure to work out when you got there. Crazy! However, all of this traveling alone taught me to believe in myself and also to listen to my intuition. There were many times when I was faced with situations that were potentially dangerous. Listening to that whisper of a feeling always protected me.

Driving from Cape Coral, Florida to Champaign, Illinois was something I looked forward to. It was my chance to leave the comforts of home, see different places and meet people. I made it all the way to Chattanooga, Tennessee the first day. My directions told me it would take ten hours but it took twelve with three short stops. Eric will say it’s because I drive slow. Maybe.

If you’re driving in the Tennessee mountains with all the truckers be sure to get out of their way! I found one slow truck in the right lane and I followed it for an hour letting all the speedsters with their 18 wheels fly by!

The mountains in Chattanooga were beautiful and the town made me want to stay and explore. Unfortunately, I only had time for a short walk to the library before I set out for Hohenwald.

Why did I need to make an extra stop in Hohenwald? Well, that’s where the Elephant Sanctuary is and I had to visit because they rescue elephants from circuses and zoos and allow them to just live their life without any expectations to perform. Free from chains they let them be elephants. I wanted to see the Welcome Center and learn more about their organization because if I had 2,700 acres of land I’d want to rescue elephants too and probably greyhounds and maybe even bonobo’s…

If you’re reading this from Great Britain I just have to say GREAT JOB! on passing laws to ban the use of wild animals in circuses. I hope the U.S follows your lead. Oh and readers in Great Britian and other countries I long to visit I could use some help getting MYSTIC selling on Amazon outside of the U.S. Please find it on Amazon in your country and click “LIKE” or maybe even buy it for yourself or your favorite 9-13 year-old! Thank you! And thank you to everyone here who bought MYSTIC, wrote reviews, and sent me kind messages. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

No more chains! This video will make you cry…happy tears.

To be continued…