About My Journey
This website shares my personal experiences and insights gained from traveling solo in Europe, especially starting at an older age. Even more challenging, I have traveled more than 100 nights so far on a budget that some would find too spartan. This site aims to inspire others to pursue their travel (or other) dreams and learn from my adventures and misadventures.
Why I Travel
Throughout my travels, I have met my real goal of broadening my world view. It’s important for all of us to gain a little humility as we realize that other cultures do things differently and still somehow survive and thrive.
Lessons Learned
Each trip has brought new insights, and hopefully new wisdom. Navigating unfamiliar cities and situations can sometimes be frustrating, but both planning and then allowing for spontaneous changes to plans and responses to challenges. I share these lessons to help you prepare for your own discoveries.
Inspiration
My stories are not just about travel; they have a subtext about pursuing dreams at any age. I hope to motivate others to step out of their comfort zones and do something that most people think is a little on the daring side.
Mistakes Happen, So Make the Best of Them
I openly share my mistakes to provide a realistic and often funny view of solo travel. Learn from my mistakes as you travel vicariously with me.
Fun Moments
Traveling solo has led to countless fun experiences, from unexpected conversations to new discoveries. I don’t consider myself as “on vacation” in Europe; rather I am an explorer and a learner. Nonetheless, life things plenty of funny moments, and I hope some of these will make you smile too.
Future Adventures
You would think that I would be getting this travel bug out of my system, but it hasn’t happened yet. I might be on Trip 3 as you read this, but Trip 4 is already basically planned. I’ll even tell you what Trip 5 would be about, even though the itinerary isn’t fleshed out. You can see how I’ve gone about prioritizing scarce time, health, and money to create the trips most meaningful to me.
Who Was I Before This?
One of the fun things about being “of a certain age” is that wow, do we have stories and plenty of them. Along the way I’ve been a housewife, secretary, city planner, television station manager, project manager, and a nonprofit executive director. I’ve taken on some pretty daunting professional assignments, so maybe this is why I can try something really new at around age 70. Previously I authored a website based on my professional expertise in city planning and community development for about 15 years, but now it is time to try something different.
Final Thoughts
Long solo trips to Europe just happen to be my own growing edge. Even if you have no interest in travel or Europe, or even if you have been to Europe dozens of times, maybe I can convince you to try something new that will make you a better person. It will take some weeks and months to build out this website fully, but in the meantime, we will be adding content rapidly when I’m at home.