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I'd rather be traveling - Travel Views - Brief Article

Darlene P. Copp

If you are like me, you can't afford the time or money to take all the trips you would like. To placate my wanderlust, I incorporate aspects of travel into my everyday life in a variety of ways. Try out some of these ideas for calming your own travel longings:

1. If you haven't started a collection yet, consider what type of object you would enjoy amassing while reminding you of places you've visited. Functional items can be inexpensive, packable, and relatively easy to store or display when you return home. I started accumulating coffee mugs when my family chided me for breaking so many. I buy only white mugs with distinctive logos, like my inaugural mug from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. I also like to collect baskets because they embody locally available materials and are distinctively designed from region to region.

2. Tote a guidebook for your next destination whenever you suspect you'll be kept waiting, like at the doctor's office. Nothing will soothe your restlessness better than preparing for an anticipated trip.

3. Investing in regional art for your home creates special memories. I bought my first piece of pueblo pottery at the Grand Canyon Lodge because I admired it so much, only later learning what makes this Native American art form valuable. With landscape, sculpture, textile, ceramic, and other artists living in virtually every intriguing place in America, collecting art and travel go hand in hand.

4. Double your pleasure by sending yourself postcards when you travel. Some will arrive after you're back into your daily routine. Save them to decoupage tables, boxes, and other travel-themed accessories for your home.

5. Don't bypass the local-color greeting cards in all those gift shops you wander into on vacation. They will bring back trip memories when you address them, while their novelty will delight your friends. At the Gage Hotel in West Texas, I found photo cards of a legendary woman rancher that I sent with birthday wishes to all the independent-minded women I know.

6. Make gift shopping more interesting by browsing the travel section of your favorite bookstore, especially if you know the recipient's travel goals. Even nature identification and "best of" lodging guides are useful picks.

7. Instead of putting all your travel photos in a dust-gathering album, frame some of the best for nooks and crannies around your home or office so you can appreciate them often.

8. Turn your excess travel photos into postcards by affixing them to cardstock. They're perfect for short notes to your travel-loving friends.

9. Your taste buds can help you relive your travels. Before your vacation ends, buy nonperishable ingredients, such as Cajun spices, for dishes you can make yourself back home. You might also identify sources that will ship regional foods, like the pinon coffee I order from a coffee shop in Taos, New Mexico.

10. Bring home regional music (Tex-Mex? Blues? Bluegrass?) to play while fixing and eating foods of the region. Or rent videos that evoke memories of distant places to enjoy with these meals.

11. Kick off the new year by calling state and city travel bureaus for vacation planners; you'll love getting the mailings amidst tax statements and Christmas bills.

12. Never travel a stretch of interstate without checking ahead for interesting places to take your breaks. It might be a restaurant you read about or a historical site.

13. Instead of repeating an oft-driven route to visit relatives, allow time for back roads through small towns and scenic countrysides. New routes mean new discoveries.

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