TRAVEL GOALS FOR ASPIRATIONAL ADVENTURERS

Travel goals are more than just getting out of town.

Let’s start there.

More than changing surroundings, travel goals are so much more.

Like what, then? Some are bigger than others, but they are all goals.

Take a trip with a friend, long or short, and try to stay friends.

For example, take an over-nighter for a once in a lifetime concert. That’s it, two married guys out on their own.

What happens when the TV sizzles and smokes in the motel room? Put it out on the balcony.

If the beds have a buggy look to them after the TV reception goes up in smoke? Wear a bug suit to bed, which is a sweat suit with hoodie and socks.

The concert was The Wall in the Tacoma Dome and it came with a fireball on stage that threw heat so far that I felt it a long ways away. Everyone in the place sang along like it was a cult meeting with Roger Waters as high priest.

If a trip is all about the music, try and keep it all about the music. Like this: “We don’t need no education.”

Don’t believe it.

Competition Travel Goals

Planners, especially those who like to plan a trip based on learning the most possible in the shortest time, have a special agenda.

If you’re not a planner, but travel with one, expect travel surprises.

My wife is a planner with support staff. I am the support staff.

We went to England the first time for what I thought was all about family. And it was, but there was more happening than her showing up. Since she’s the only person in her family tree to be born in America, showing up in England with a husband (me) and kids was more than enough.

But there was more to it than meeting everyone from Cambridge to Devon. Like what, you ask?

You’ve heard of King Arthur, the legend of the mythical king?

This mythical ruler was conceived in a place called Tintagel Castle. That alone is a sign. How many of us know where they were conceived? Hands?

How many care about it? Conceived in a castle must be different than the Westward Ho Motel in Bend, Oregon, but it’s still good to know.

My wife is a King Arthur fan. Who knew? It cleared up at another stop: Glastonbury. You’ve heard of it? Me neither, but there we were.

And there was King Arthur’s burial plot. How does a man who never existed have a birthplace and a burial plot?

It started to feel like a search for Santa Claus. Is he real?

Aspirational Travel Mean Learning Something New

Learning something, learning anything, means paying attention. Maybe read up on where you’re going before you leave? Travel planners do because they’re not missing anything.

The planner will locate every museum and church in every city on the trip. The non-planner absorbs the learning experience minus the anxiety of worrying about missing something, anything.

From huge churches in Seville and Barcelona, to huge churches in London, from Musée d’Orsay in Paris to the National Archive in Washington D.C., the learning never stops.

And it shouldn’t. After all, when you’re on the road, keep going. Would you rather spend the last night in New Orleans in a room, or doing the Big Daddy walk down Bourbon Street with a cigar and a Hurricane?

Take that walk, see a tomb, find something new and surprising. You don’t have to share it, but remember in case there’s a quiz. (There’s always a quiz.)

If you’ve been out in the world before, why not take the same curiosity for big places to smaller ones?

Take Astoria, Oregon, for example. It’s the oldest city in the state, and the first American settlement west of the Rockies. Named for a rich man in the fur trade, John Jacob Astor, apply the same travel goals as Paris, or London, or Portland.

Where’s the biggest church, the most informative museum? How did geography shape the city? Why didn’t Astoria take Portland’s place as the most important city in Oregon? It’s located, like Seattle, near the ocean. What happened?

Questions and more questions, and all with reasonable answers.

If you’ve got your own questions and answers, leave a comment.

People seem to like Astoria. Is there something wrong with that?

Let’s find out. Travel with goals.

PS: Insurrection is not on the list of travel goals.