Relevant material, Australian travelers delight, and news of an upcoming adventure.

 

 

The picture and links I posted below are some relevant items I thought I would share with you today.

 

 

 

 

(picture found on

http://stephabroad.com/date-girl-travels/ )

 

http://www.earthporm.com/ultimate-guide-traveling-youre-broke/

 

(* Side note: Both of the links given above provide a lot of useful information on travel through Australia for anyone planning a trip. It’s must read material!  Because this location is on my short-list of places to visit I wanted to make sure and point that out.)

       
 
 

I first saw the picture in my newsfeed on Facebook. A friend of mine posted it on her wall. I considered this a gift, a wonderful gift. And a caption I couldn’t agree more with. Perhaps this will provide someone a little extra motivation to break away and visit somewhere new. Although, for my friends in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest, I think the current weather alone should be enough. -30°F with wind-chill (-34°C) should put a “fire” under anyone’s ass to get away. I hear Sacramento California is reeeaaalll nice this time of year….or at least better than that.  

 The picture itself was in a blog from the website http://stephabroad.com . For my fellow lady travelers and the men who date them, the article “Date a girl who travels” (link at the top) is a great read and, furthermore, a great website to poke around. The author, Steph Ridhalgh, is a seasoned traveler. She was born in Sidney, Australia but grew up in London and later Boston. She was a field producer for the hit Australian breakfast show “Sunrise” and has lots of experience touring around the world just from working for the show. She most recently moved to New York City, which is her home base for her most recent adventures. (see her “Isreal: A First Trip”) Her passion for traveling is evident in everything she writes. Her website is designed well and features some great travel treats for various places.

 The second link listed above (READ IT) is one of the best travel related pieces I’ve ever read. It’s essentially about traveling on a budget but it is packed full of other useful stuff. It has quite a few tips for travelers with limited resources and also provides “how-tos” for low cost and free travel. The article also features additional links I think any adventurer could appreciate and make use of. The website https://www.couchsurfing.org , a reference I found in the reading, is something I just recently signed up for. It’s $25 to sign up but I’ve read some great reviews. I’m sure that I’ll be using this, so stay tuned for a future blog and possible YouTube video about this site and how it works. If you already are familiar with this site or a member, leave a comment and tell me what you think. If you are interested, please add me. My user name is DannyJ.Mitchell. Perhaps we’ll drink a pint together sometime.

 I am going on a trip somewhere in California very soon. I’ll be bringing a camera (the Nikon D5200) and trying my hand at photography. I’m unsure where I’m going yet and chances are I won’t know until I get there. Of course, Lake Tahoe has crossed my mind and San Francisco as well but there is so much I haven’t seen yet. The exciting part about this is that it will be the first time I go somewhere with the specific intent to write about it. In addition, I will hopefully be traveling overseas this month. I’ll let you know as the time gets closer where that is and what I’ll be doing.

This is all very new to me, so, as always, please let me know what you think. Please add me on google+ and follow me on twitter @traptadrenalin (Although, I’m new to twitter and don’t say much yet.) I would just like to say thanks again for taking the time to read my blog. I really appreciate every one of you and your feedback. Now get out there and start planning some travel.

These early adventures are the basis for my great love

These early adventures are the basis for my great love,

Travel

Travel is one of my greatest passions. It is one of only a handful of things I have done in my life I feel is worth talking about. This great love I have didn’t come overnight. My grandparents, Omie and Opie, lived in northern and central Wisconsin most of my childhood. In addition, my mother’s family owns a “hunting and fishing” cabin between Minocqua and Tomahawk on a private lake. Trips to see Omie and Opie at their various lake houses and visits to my family cabin on Swamp Lake were always filled with memorable times and great life lessons. Furthermore, my mom had good friends that lived in Driggs, Idaho, nestled up against the Grand Teton mountain range and most of my dad’s family lived throughout California. From my fifth birthday until I was in high school, I believe I made at least six cross country trips towards California. Because I am proud of where I am from, you will never hear me discount travel through the incredible state that is Wisconsin, but my adventures to northern California were the basis for one of the greatest loves of my life.   

My trips out west revealed many places that will always be amongst my favorites, and were really the beginning of this great love affair. Mount Rushmore and Deadwood, South Dakota, were my two favorite stops east of the Rocky Mountains. Don’t get me wrong, the Black Hills of western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming are wonderful but there is nothing quite like the raw natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains. The Big Horn Mountains were the first of many summits driving west on interstate 90 bound for California.

Two must-stops in every lifetime of travel: Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. I simply do not have the capacity to describe the way these tremendous national parks make me feel. The variety of wildlife, large bodies of water, countless mountain ranges and other natural wonders make these places truly breathtaking! Video footage and pictures will never do justice to a three-hundred and sixty degree view of Yellowstone Lake, watching Old Faithful erupt boiling water 130 feet in the air or any other of the countless wonders located here.

Because I made this journey west a number of times, my family would take different routes.  Deadwood, South Dakota, and Yellowstone National Park were really the only constants, although Jackson, Wyoming, was an easy stop since it was so close to the southern exit of Yellowstone. We went as far south as the Grand Canyon and as far north as Billings, Montana. Crossing the state line into California was a moment I remember celebrating in the car with my family. Because we were usually heading out to see my grandparents who lived in Grizzly Flats, we typically stayed north. It was sort of like a “we finally arrived” moment. I remember the heavy smell of the pine in the California north woods, a smell I still associate with my childhood family vacations now, as an adult. We usually stayed close to my grandparents’ property visiting Lake Tahoe or Sacramento but occasionally we would poke around central and northern California.

I will never forget the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean. I think that sealed the deal for me. Growing up in Wisconsin, the largest bodies of water I spent time at were lakes and rivers that you could easily see across. I realize Lake Michigan was close but my family usually didn’t spend a lot of time in eastern Wisconsin, except trips to Green Bay. And when I saw that ocean….I knew that I wanted to see more - as much as I could. I looked out, as far as I could see, where the ocean meets the horizon and wondered what was out there. I still get that feeling today. It sort of represents the future for me. Someone I’ve never met is doing something I’ve never done in a place I’ve never been. As long as that exists, I’ll never stop traveling.

Whether I’m entranced by a mountain range or staring at the horizon of an open sea, this is defiantly more than just a hobby. The more I travel, the more I realize that I have yet to unveil all the fruits that this great love of mine has to offer. You can start at anytime, anywhere. Just leave your house and go somewhere, no planning needed. Sometimes the “no plan” plan is the best way to go anyway. The goal of this blog is to tell my stories, help educate others on their future travels and, of course, meet new people who are on their own journeys. It truly is a gift that keeps on giving.