Travel is not easy.
With all the dreaming, planning, saving, and then taking the giant leap towards something that is out of your comfort zone and filled with endless potential problems, it’s a massive drain of resources.
Brooklyn Bridge, New York City
In order to make travel a reality, acceptance of the sacrifice is a must.
We’ve been on this USA road trip with Goldie and the Beast (our travel trailer and Ford F250) for nearly six months.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been putting the F250 truck in reverse to head back home to Raleigh to stability, comfort and routine.
With endless winter, endless travel trailer maintenance, a heavy workload (including homeschooling), and finding a way to parent without messing up your kids (I’m sure the parents reading this get it) exhaustion often walks beside me.
But, I don’t quit because something will happen that will remind me of WHY I travel.
Hot Springs in Big Bend National Park, Texas
It can be a simple moment, like Savannah’s sudden shock at seeing the flamingos standing with one leg and asking why they don’t have another.
I’m reminded that I get to stand in these moments with her as she absorbs the world around her.
I get to see how she thinks, what she’s learning, and how she’s growing.
It’s like I become a child again and awe and wonder become the forefront of my perspective.
Then it’s the bigger moments like zipping around in an ATV in Utah over the brilliant orange sand dunes amongst some of the most spectacular and colorful desert backdrops I’ve ever seen.
Sand Hollow State Park, Utah
I reached out to our community to share why they travel, and I was blown away by the number of email responses I had and felt so inspired and joyful reading them all.
I’ve shared snippets throughout the post and our Instagram update where even more people shared with us
This blog post is written in partnership with our sponsor Allianz Travel, who apart from helping to keep your investment in travel safe, are committed to helping you connect to those very important reasons for travel.
You can share those reasons with Allianz using the hashtag #ITravelBecause and #TravelHappy.
Be sure to tag us (@yTravelBlog) as we’d LOVE to read your responses.
If you’re a blogger and you’d like to write a post yourself on your reasons for travel be sure to leave it in the comments below so we can read it.
1. Living a Good Life Filled with Rich Memories
Ryan Mountain, Joshua Tree National Park, California
First and foremost I’m about living a good life. As Deacon Claybourne would sing,
I don’t want to look back and know that I wasted my finite, precious years on earth living a life that does not fill me with joy and give me years and years of incredible memories.
That’s all I want from life and travel gifts that to me.
As a result of my years of travel and knowing THIS was the only life for me, it has gifted me the opportunity to create a thriving business that I LOVE so much.
I spend my days doing what I love and encouraging other people to live a good life and do what they love.
2. Connection: to Self, to Others, to Mother Nature, to Life
If I’m not traveling it feels like I’m trying to drink water through a straw with holes in it!
I find it hard to connect to anything: joy, wonder, discovery, relaxation the list goes on.
Because travel is constantly exposing us to new experiences it’s so easy to stay connected to the present – the only place life exists.
Travel offers me greater opportunity to connect to Mother Earth – if you follow our travels you know we are always playing in nature. As you’ll see in my points below, it helps me find so much peace, joy and wisdom.
