“If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.“

~ Juan Ramon Jiminez, the Spanish poet and winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize for Literature

Today our five-year-old, Madeline, approached me and asked when we were leaving.

“Leaving for what,” I asked her, sure she was thinking about a local park or Grandma’s house.

“For our journey,” she said.

Still not getting what she was talking about, I thought she wanted to pretend that we were on one of our make-believe adventures as pirates looking for treasure, superheroes fighting crime, or rock starts at a concert.

“What do you want to be on our journey, Maddy,” I said.

“No, Daddy, not one of our pretend adventures… when are we leaving for our real adventure?!”

Then it clicked, and something in my spirit threw a can of gasoline on the pilot light inside me. I want to go now. Not for me, but because my kids are getting anxious to go. My five-year-old wasn’t interestd in some made-up, fictional adventure. She wants the real thing.

We may not be digging up treasure or fighting crime. The odds are we won’t be performing for sold-out stadiums to thousands of screaming fans. But that doesn’t matter… traveling the country with my family, exploring places we’ve never been, teaching our children what true diversity and acceptance is, instilling in them a love for God and all His Creation… that’s more exciting than any adventure I can make up in my head.

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  ~St. Augustine

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money.  Then take half the clothes and twice the money.  ~Susan Heller

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travel’s sake.  The great affair is to move.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.  ~Lao Tzu

It is not down in any map; true places never are.  ~Herman Melville

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.  ~G.K. Chesterton

Another great quote:

“…not all those who wander are lost…”

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Hannah and I came across this quote during one of our late-night information-gathering internet sessions. This will be hanging somewhere on the walls in of our new trailer when we get it.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

~ Mark Twain