I can't say he's a "friend" of mine, but there's this particular guy who I follow musically, who happens to be traveling at the moment, and he's playing in a concert hall about 820 miles from where he kicks up his feet to watch the "telly". He's from Edinburgh, Scotland, and he's playing somewhere in Sweden. I know the city, but that's not the point. The point is, Sweden is about 700 miles or so (give or take) as the crow flies. If you're taking a plane, it's even less.
It sounds so exotic, so romantic, so bougie to be able to say you go from one country to another to perform or to travel. It is cool, that's for dang sure, but when you think about it, traveling from state to state here in the United States, could be just as cool really - - especially when you count how many Scotlands you can fit in one Oklahoma. Scotland is about half the size of the Sooner State. If you travel about 700-750 miles in any direction you'll cross at least two and sometimes three states unless you're going to Texas -- which is not nearly as far from us, but side to side it's massive.
Most of my European (especially my Scottish) friends like to tell me just how many countries they've flown to, how many passport stamps they've collected. I have to giggle a little. I mean yeah, it's cool, I'd like to travel around that part of the world too, but how many of them can say they've visited 48 states? I know..I really should make a better effort to get out to both Alaska and Idaho! IDAHO!! I can't believe I've never been there, but there's always the hope, right? I may make it a point now that I can do more traveling again.
Chicago is about 715 miles from Oklahoma City. I've been to Chicago maybe 15-20 times. New York? Yeah...another 15-20 times. Don't get me started on Dallas, Austin, Houston, or San Antonio. Los Angeles? Vegas? (don't ask) Oh wow, yeah, so I drove that twelve times that I know of, and flew in another 30-40. Florida? OK, that one is more sporadic. I've been to most of the bigger cities but haven't been through Tallahassee yet....don't know why. I've literally driven or flown into nearly every capital of every state, except Idaho and Alaska, and get this...I did it with a two-legged dog slung over my shoulders; try that in a small town! (I have)
International traveling? Sure, I've done that too, but it's far less exciting than my Scottish/English friends who traipse all over The Continent. Most of them have been to anywhere from six to ten countries; that's pretty cool. I've been to England because I parked there and boarded another plane, and I've been to Scotland. That's it...wait, Mexico counts, right? Yeah, and I suppose now that I think about it, Canada counts too. I didn't realize I had even crossed into Canada when I did. We were in a limo (with the dog) and we couldn't get out of it since we didn't have her vet papers!!
I guess my point is traveling is good for you, it's fun, it's exciting, it's adventurous and it's entertaining. At least when I traveled the US I knew I could order dinner in the native tongue, and I'd pretty much understand most of the accents...there was this one bus ride in West Virginia when I thought I was in a completely different country, but I fuddled my way through. I think we should get stamps in our interactive road passports to show which states we've been to, how many miles we've driven, how often we've flown and landed and woken up in a new city 1000 miles from where we were just the day before so we can shout "WOO HOO!! I'm traveling!!" I guess we could do that.
Faith (my dog) and I traveled over 300 times together by flight, and at least 3x that by car from one place to the other. That dog never tired of the travel -- me, when I hung it up I hung it up! I stopped going non-stop back in 2014 and now that it's been 10 years I think maybe I may do it again. I mean, I've traveled since then, flown overseas, and I've flown here and there, but we lived in the DFW and O'Hare airports at least 4-5 days of the week for quite some time. We knew every employee I think - - at least they knew Faithy.
When my friend gets back from his singing gig he'll be happy to be home again; we were too. There's no place like home. It doesn't matter if it's the Capital City of Scotland or the Capital City of Oklahoma -- home is home. It's the place you breathe a little deeper, a little easier, and you don't have to feel "on" for everyone. You can be you...it may be time to do a bit more, I'll let you know.
Photo Credit: ME. (Faith and I spent time in Vegas)
No comments:
Post a Comment