Interesting the serendipity that happens when you’re ready for it. Just yesterday I came across an adventurer whose journeys really speak to my wanderlust. Lael Wilcox is living the bike life that I dream about. Her pictures of bikes and palapas on the empty Baja playa, that’s some serious bucket list scratching. I have a deep and enduring love for Baja California. My affinity for camping on the beach, living dirty and wind-scoured, was born on childhood roadtrips down Baja Highway 1.
Eleanor Moseman is another person I admire from afar online. She’s a photographer and writer and world traveler. I believe she’s in Shanghai now. We’ve interacted a few times and I’ve got a feeling we’d get along in real life.
Riding through Quebec this morning I finally have the feeling of being in a different country. Seeing and hearing French as the majority language gives me an extra boost of being abroad, finally leaving the confines of North American English-only culture. I miss riding overseas, far from my own comfort zone. I miss my expat life, when I was teaching ESL in Taiwan and every day was a new adventure. This tiny taste of Quebec has me itching to travel farther, to push some more boundaries.
My tribe is women who feel compelled to travel to far-out places. Women who give up on trying to talk their friends and lovers to come along and strike out alone. At a travel writing workshop at University of Iowa, I met a class full of women who take traveling seriously. It’s hard to find my tribe because we’re all too busy running around the globe having solo adventures. We’ve barely got time to brag about them. If I could meet Lael and Eleanor in person, I’d want to hear stories. Tales of the hardest times, the most glorious moments, the worst weather and the best camp spots. Probably I should be saying I’d ask about websites and mailing lists and marketing, if I were a better online businesswoman. But really, I’d just want to hear the stories.
This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 6
Spinstera 
I would like to eat that shrimp tostada, please.
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