There’s no doubt that travel can be a personal game-changer. Leaving the comfort and familiarity of home to venture abroad exposes travelers to new cultural ideas and viewpoints. A constant barrage of novelty can be stressful, but at the same time, it presents a fertile field for learning.
Some of these lessons are large, and some are small, and frequently, they come from unexpected places. Over the next few weeks we’ll be launching our “Lessons From The Road Series,” posting on a few of the ideas and messages that have popped up in unusual places.
It will be an eclectic mix, and as a teaser, the topics will include: love, divinity, skeletons, and Bill Murray giving marriage advice.
We hope you’ll join us.
Happy Trails,
James & Terri
Photo Credit: 7. Mikael Miettinen
GALLIVANCE 
I am definitely curious. Looking forward to hearing what the skeletons and Bill Murray have to say. 🙂
Sue, people have been “throwing the bones” for centuries, so there must be something to it. That many shamans can’t all be wrong. ~James
What she said ! [grin]
Margaret-Rose, we promise a couple of twists and a slightly different perspective. ~James
Bring on the lessons!…always welcomed.
Great! We promise to keep it fun and interesting. 🙂 ~Terri
Looking forward to it James and Terri!
Thanks Carol. We’ll do our best to keep everyone entertained. 🙂 ~Terri
Great, always willing to learn.
Carol, travel for us has always been about new experiences and learning about new cultures. It’s what keeps us going and keeps us blogging. ~James
Interesting set of topics!
Laura, the series is a medley gathered from all over. We hope you like it. ~James
You’ve piqued my curiosity ~ I look forward to reading your lessons from the road series.
Patti, travel is a wonderful perspective-changer, and we’re glad you’re following along. ~James
I love learning so bring it on! Will there be homework assigned? 😉
LuAnn, these are the fun kind – no homework required … just an inquiring open mind. Fits you to a T. 🙂 ~Terri
😀
I know this will be GOOD. I look forward to your new series. 😛
We’re so glad to have you along Tess. Our goal is to keep it fun and a bit unusual. 🙂 Terri
I have no doubts. 😀
I will be interested to see if I have learned some of the same things as you, so of course I will be following along. – Mike
Mike, we’re bombarded by messages constantly, and each person’s perspective is determined by their personal filter. We hope you like ours, and are happy you’re following along. BTW, how are things in Washington? ~James
I have always been favorably impressed with your perspective on things, and whenever we followed in your footsteps we were duly rewarded.
It feels good to be back in familiar territory. The only thing is we are constantly experiencing ‘sticker shock’ at the price of food! Wow – were we spoiled! – Mike
Looking forward to it!
And I have a question for the travel experts. While we’ve done a lot of traveling, we have never taken a cruise as we prefer to explore on our own and, generally, don’t like the idea of being captive on a boat. However, we are considering a Baltic cruise with some friends. The big boats look completely unappealing to us, but we found two smaller boat cruises that look more manageable: Tauck and a German company, Hapag. Are you, by chance, familiar with either?
Unfortunately Jeannee, you have asked the wrong people for cruise advice. We’ve only done a couple of weekend cruises, and while they were fun, based on our experiences, we couldn’t offer much advice. However, given our limited experience, I would say that smaller is always better. Also, I’d recommend using internet forums as a resource. For instance, I searched “Tauck Cruise Baltic Reviews” and came up with these:
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/thinking-about-going-to-russia-has-anyone-taken-a-tauck-tour.cfm
http://www.cruisecritic.com/
-this site has a reviews section.
Also, we traveled quite a bit in the Baltic, and have a number of posts. We visited Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. Use the search function on our blog to find our posts. The Baltic area is very cool, and you’ll have a wonderful time. Bon Voyage. ~James
Thanks. I will definitely take a look at your posts!
We bought a spiffy little sports car three years ago — an impulse buy that we don’t regret — and set off on a road trip to Santa Fe (from Portland, OR) and back. Somewhere near Moab we encountered a road like the one you’ve pictured. Top down. Supercharger howling. Singing along to “Ticket to Ride.” Nirvana!
This sounds like my kind of road trip Tom. On my return to the US from one of my overseas postings, I had some money burning a hole in my pocket, so I bought a Mazda Rx7. It was a real road-rocket, which I used to run speed trials on the flat, straight Texas roads around Dallas. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t one of the smartest things I’ve ever done, but damn, it was fun! I guess it’s one “guy” thing that everyone should try at least once. BTW, how are the Portlandians? ~James
Can’t wait!
Thanks Pam, it should be fun. ~James
Cool idea… Travel breaks comfort zones and can make or break relationships. After traveling a lot it always surprises me when people complain they cannot get things like home, or the locals don’t speak English. Isn’t that part of the reason to travel? Adventure of new things.
I think that most people would agree that travel is about the adventure of new things, and I’m sure that you’ve had your share of adventure in China. I spent a fair amount of time there on business, and it was an eye-opener for sure. ~James
Yes China is a real adventure. Having an open mind, and open eyes you can see a lot if interesting things.
Can’t wait to see them and get my teeth into them! 🙂
It should be fun Chris, so stay tuned. ~James
Looking forward to your Lessons From The Road series. What I love most about travel and reading your blog is not only what we learn about other countries, cultures and people but also what we learn about ourselves! Anita
I couldn’t agree more Anita. Keep an eye out for tomorrow’s post for some ideas on what we learn about ourselves (and our partners) when we travel. ~James
Let the bones roll. Probably makes more sense than Bill Murray giving marriage advice. But I’ll withhold judgement. Meanwhile I am heading off to see what the whales say.:) –Curt
I assume that you’re whale-watching on the Oregon coast Curt. I’m envious. I may have told you that when we lived in Newport, we were volunteers for a gray whale count program, and it was wonderful. It was their migration season, and the rain was relentless, but we had a great time. ~James
Actually James, we will be kayaking out of Fort McNeill on the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island. It’s a six-day kayaking/camping trip that takes us into prime Orca territory. We went to Newport for my birthday in March this year. It was beautiful, but very wet, as you mentioned. 🙂 –Curt
The kayaking trip sounds fun Curt, and good luck on the orcas. Have you made your offerings to the weather gods? ~James
Your series hold me in suspense . . . can’t wait to read the next ones. So glad to see you’re sharing some of what travel means to you personally as well as what you’ve learned.
The next post is Monday Rusha, and I promise it is completely different. These series take some effort, but they’re fun to do. ~James
I can tell your blog takes effort, and that’s why it’s so worthwhile to read! Thanks for setting the bar so high for the rest of us! Good luck with this series. You are no doubt thinking of what’s next!
“A fertile field for learning.” Well said, Terri & James. 🙂
Thanks Tricia. One thing that we’ve learned over the years is to pace ourselves on the “learning” part; a day off between museums, not to many cathedrals in a row, etc. Our motto is that “We see what we see,” and it’s quality over quantity. Trying to do too much only causes stress that we don’t want or need. ~James