The Benefits Of Travel

Just returned from a nine-day visit to the East Coast, Rhode Island specifically. I love to travel but circumstances had prevented it for some time. Yes, unfamiliar situations can be challenging.

Like getting into a 2017 Ford Fusion Hybrid with no introduction and being expected to drive this modern vehicle. Guaranteed to get the adrenaline stirred. Like driving Interstate traffic at night while learning how to turn on headlights and windshield wipers. Like depending, for the first time in your life, on Google's impersonal phone voice to get you to your destination ninety miles away. Like pulling out the manual to find the latch release for the gas tank and learn the tank's capacity so you can tell the attendant how much gasoline you need to fill the tank.

But, the pleasurable experiences far outweigh the stressful ones. Meeting someone you've been friends with since high school days for lunch and not opening the menu for the first thirty minutes. Getting together with two sisters; sisters you live 2,000 miles away from and its been years since the three of you have been together. Returning to a well-loved stretch of beach just to stand and watch the waves crash along the shoreline. Strolling a narrow street between homes that were built in the 1700s.

Traveling allows me to store up sights and smells that are not a part of my regular world. The salty tang of ocean air; a hidden walkway consisting of granite markers commemorating the ministers who have served a local church since 1711; a tucked-away bay cluttered with anchored boats sitting out choppy waters; climbing the stairs to a modern third-story condo.

All fodder to feed a fertile mind when the time comes to put words to paper.