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| Moon over magnificent Luxor Temple, Egypt |
Mary Anne Rachmacher
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| Moon over the Parroquia, San Miguel de Allende, MX |
That's why I decided to gather my travel blogs from 2009-2017 into book form so they could sit next to my bedside table and remind me of the wondrous adventures I've had. Remind me of what I have seen and learned, and how much more there is to see. I called on talented friend Sue Dessner once again to help me with the handy dandy Blog2Print program. She had helped me with my Peace Corps Blogs, and we were both happy with the results. So now it was onto the travel blogs, and Sue was there to help. She's a traveler, too, and a traveler's angel.
The hardest part of the process is identifying the blogs, reviewing text and photos, and getting them all in some order. Sue did the hard work, but of course any problems, typos and errors are solely my fault. I wrote an introduction, and voila! "Fran's Travel Adventures, 2009-2017."
It's amazing where live takes you if you take life as it comes. That was one of my favorite sayings when I lived in Ukraine as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). This collection of blogs covers my travel adventures in different places from 2009, when I started blogging in Chernigov (www.fran-ukrainian-adventures), to 2011, when I returned to the US, and then from 2011 to 2017, when I continued blogging from Sylvania, Ohio (www.lifeafterpeacecorps and www.lifeafterall).
Living in Ukraine for two years was a travel adventure every day. There was so much to see and discover, everything new and exciting, intense and thrilling, that I was moved to write about it. Once I started writing I couldn't stop. Nor could I escape an eastern European worldview that changed me.
I don't consider myself a world traveler, but I've been to some fascinating places in the USA and abroad. I think "travel" is any place you go away from where you happen to be living. Whenever you go away from home, you are an explorer.
“Only one who wanders finds new paths,” a Norwegian proverb says. I have loved and I savor my wanderings. I have been fortunate to find new paths.
“Only one who wanders finds new paths,” a Norwegian proverb says. I have loved and I savor my wanderings. I have been fortunate to find new paths.
I had traveled some before blogging, enduring memories in my mind, in journals, photos, scattered postcards. There were amazing trips to Australia and New Zealand (my kids remember this special time); to India (astounding); to and around London (with grandkids Tony and Julia on two of those visits); Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence and western Europe (thrilling, all of them). San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, remains a favorite R&R spot, and I've experience it with Julia and Tony, and later with sister Andy, daughter Elissa, and grandson Joshua. Mexico City and south to Oaxaca, Puebla, San Cristobal are fascinating too. I treasure a trip to Costa Rica with brother Loren. One late night in Arenal, over the volcano, we caught a full moon and jumped two feet off the ground for joy. We travelled together the Southwest, Grand Canyon and Utah, those beautiful canyonlands, to upstate New York, New England, North Carolina, around DC, from one end of Florida to the other, and lots of great towns, beaches, and sites along the East coast. My sister Andy covered the same ground. We were in our glory. I had hoped to go to Mexico with Loren after Peace Corps, but it was not to be.
When I was directing NEH state programs in DC and Florida, I loved going to regional and national meetings in cities across America. I usually took a few days at the beginning or end to do some sight-seeing.When we met in Portland, I traveled along the Oregon coast. When in Phoenix, I drove up to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Salt Lake City opened up new vistas, and San Antonio, Texas, provided history and fun along the Rio Grande River. A meeting in Jackson, Mississippi, affirmed the pioneering role of that state council in addressing race relations, and another in Nashville featured the Southern Festival of Books and Al Gore in one of his early talks on the environment. One meeting took place in Sitka, Alaska, from which one could certainly see the Russian heritage, as well as Alaska's indigenous heritage. It meant a side trip to Seattle, too. The US will always beckon, maybe a train trip across the country and visits to more of our exquisite National Parks and historic sites.
When I was directing NEH state programs in DC and Florida, I loved going to regional and national meetings in cities across America. I usually took a few days at the beginning or end to do some sight-seeing.When we met in Portland, I traveled along the Oregon coast. When in Phoenix, I drove up to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Salt Lake City opened up new vistas, and San Antonio, Texas, provided history and fun along the Rio Grande River. A meeting in Jackson, Mississippi, affirmed the pioneering role of that state council in addressing race relations, and another in Nashville featured the Southern Festival of Books and Al Gore in one of his early talks on the environment. One meeting took place in Sitka, Alaska, from which one could certainly see the Russian heritage, as well as Alaska's indigenous heritage. It meant a side trip to Seattle, too. The US will always beckon, maybe a train trip across the country and visits to more of our exquisite National Parks and historic sites.
Ukraine was the travel adventure of a lifetime.Transformative. Living in one place for two years, getting to know it intimately. I travelled mostly by train across and around the country, east and west of the Dnieper River, north to Kiev and Chernigov, west to Lviv, Slavsky, Uzegorod, Mukacheva and the Carpathians, south to Odessa and Crimea, lovely Crimea.There were also vacations and wonder-filled trips to cities in eastern Europe and south to Turkey and Egypt. I'm still in awe that I saw the pyramids near Cairo, and the grandiose temples along the Nile. Archaeologists are still uncovering ancient tombs near Luxor, the Valley of the Kings.
When I returned to the States and moved from St. Petersburg, Florida to Sylvania, Ohio, to be closer to Elissa and Michelle and my grandchildren, a new life chapter began. I returned to the place I had left in 1985. I came full circle. Closing this circle has been an adventure in itself, emotionally, geographically, spiritually, in every way, this return to where I started as a young mother working on finishing her PhD dissertation.
My latest trips abroad have been special. To Barcelona and the Italian and French Rivieras, including touring Monaco and Cinque Terra. To Sicilia, beautiful Sicily, with my sister Andy, a heritage tour filled with meaning. To green and lush Ireland with daughter Elissa, around the Circle of Kerry. Most recently, I went to Amsterdam and Cologne with granddaughter Alli, a college graduation present, and met up with my sister and niece Kaaren, Jeff and Parks, who live and work in Amsterdam. Looks like Alli's catching the travel bug, a new generation on the road, and the rest of the grands behind her!
"Life takes you to unexpected places. Love brings you home." I'll continue to travel as long as I am able, to learn about new places, to have those special people-to-people encounters that make the world smaller. I'll return home and be content. Who knows, my grandkids might get to travel all over the world one day, and they might remember their dear old grandmother gushing over this place or that.
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Full Harvest moon over Amsterdam,
October 5, 2017
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| Sue Dessner and my Peace Corps Blogs Booklet. Accessible and all in one place. Thanks, Sue! |
