 This has been a interesting Challenge. I've tried to stay on top of it and also be more open about my life. I'm traveling today - so lets do a catch up - If you missed any posts you can find them here: Day 1 September Goals Day 2 Day 2 Blog Challenge Day 3 Favorite Fashion Trend - Bold Jewelry Day 4 Thankful Thoughts Day 5 Blogging Challenge Update Day 6 6 Things I’m Looking Forward To In Fall Day 7 7 Things I Need to Improve  Day 8 8 Things I Am Currently Loving Day 9 Todays Outfit Day 10 Make a Wish Day 11 Day In The Life of Ms One World Day 12 Fav Travel Quotes Day 13 Top Guilty Pleasures Day 14 Ideas? Day 15 Current Fav Television Shows  Opps! I see some of my post haven't loaded! Let me fix that and add the links! Day 17 10 Things That Make Me Happy Day 19 -Happiness is... Day 20 - Traveller By Choice Will update the missing links asap.
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 When I tell people I'm about to go on another adventure, they always seem shocked and then wistful...So I ask them what's the one thing that holds them back from traveling? They always say the same thing....Money. And the thing is they have no idea how much a trip actually costs. They just believe that can't afford it so don't go any further. It becomes an unattainable dream. Something to imagine when they are caught in rush hour traffic or working a double shift. Some impossible fantasy that only happens to a select few. ~Sigh~ But you know what? It's not really about Money -- It's about CHOICES. What do you choose to spend your money on? Travel or a new, over priced car? A new luxury purse or a cruise? Sticking to a budget and watching your spending can allow almost anyone to save enough for a trip.  I have found if it's really important to you, you will find a way to make it happen. For me, hands down I would rather have the experience of travel than a new, shiny "thing". But that's what I choose. Which would you pick?
See you at the airport~  The Blogging Challenge continues.. We all do love travel quotes, don't we? They get inspired and motivated. I have collected a few here if you want to read more quotes on traveling and here for Rumi quotes. "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 "Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber "The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” – Shirley MacLaine "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." Ralph Waldo Emerson "No place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be.” – Chuck Thompson "All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” – Samuel Johnson “For my part, 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 journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill  "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.” – Anna Quindlen “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark "I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain "If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener "Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou "The best education I have ever received was through travel." Lisa Ling "Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot Who else is ready to hit the road? Let's go!  Blogging Challenge Day 1: Goals for September OMG Where do I start? My Goals for September are pretty ambitions. Because of course, I have my business goals, (for my day job), my blog goals and my travel goals. My travel goals are ALWAYS ambitions, lol. Plus my normal monthly goals: Walk 10,000+ steps a day, eat better, make art, spend more time with my son, world peace, etc. When people start to understand how much I have going on, they seem amazed. I’m often ask how I get as much done as I do? My short answer is I stay organized and set goals. Without clear monthly goals I personally, wouldn’t get anything done. Are you a goal setter too?  BIG SEPTEMBER GOALS
February I sucked it up and hired more help. Since then I have hired two more people and things are really shifting now. Honestly, I should have done this last year, but somehow I convinced myself I didn’t have time to train them. Sure… SMH Both of these new lifesavers are ambitious and productive. They are assets to my business and are helping me remember why I do what I do again. These angels are also allowing me time to step away from the office and breathe. This is making work enjoyable once more and not the life sucking, black hole of deadlines and never-ending paperwork it had recently turned into. #AnotherTrueStory So with this new found time on my hands I committed to going to bed, (most nights) at a reasonable hour. I usually always woke up early, but now I don’t feel like I was hit by bus! I started a practical morning routine to help me stay motivated and plan out my day. I now have time for yoga, plus a morning walk and time to make a leisurely breakfast and visit with my son. Plus with the extra sleep I feel so much better. Now when I’m at work it’s pleasant and even enjoyable again. This also helped me get to the bottom of what and why I procrastinate on some projects and not on others. I farmed out the tasks that make me crazy and got those stuck projects moving again! #Win Another big change in my professional life was I stopped taking on ‘all things’ offered to me. I also got picky with my clients. I don’t except everyone who contacts me. If I know we aren’t a good fit I refer them to someone else. With these simple changes I only commit to new, worthwhile projects that lead towards my goals. I stopped overthinking and listened to my gut/heart on this and freed up so much energy! Then a total miracle happened… I actually have time to travel again! #WTF?! Which leads me to the another BIG Goals for the rest of 2018 -  2. Plan More Trips!
I want to plan at least one trip every other month and one or two small, weekend get aways on the months I’m not leaving the state. This gives me something to look forward to and feeds my wanderlust in a productive way. If I don’t plan out days off, they just won’t happen and I need up burned out from over working. 3. Blog Everyday Another goal for September is to blog everyday. Some posts are gonna be short and sweet and some are mini novels, lol. I actually have over ten finished and queued up waiting to post. So do come back visit this silly little blog again soon. (Who knows, there might even be a new post up?) Do you set goals? How do you stay motivated and on track? I’d love to hear. Working for yourself and being a parent is taxing. Honestly keeping lists and setting goals are the only way I can survive. See you at the airport~ Super short video from todays trip to the Casino.
 Hey! How are things? I'm in the middle of planning a trip today and was thinking about some of the more interesting questions folks ask me when I'm traveling. Now don't get me wrong, for me travel is a way of life and meeting interesting people and having adventures is part of the fun. But I must be very approachable, because people do not hesitate to ask me off hand questions at every turn. Is it just me or does this happen to everyone?  Most often asked question or statement:  "You don't look like your passport!" Said by every customs agent everywhere. I usually reply, "Thank God! Because I was ill then," or something like that. They have never given me any real grief over it, so I must not look THAT DIFFERENT, lol (The picture is rubbish and I will not post it, lol but take my word for it!) But I honestly don't tend to look the same in any pictures and since I color my hair as a hobby, I do tend to look different everyday. (As you may have noticed on here.) Next common question: "Where's your husband?"  They usually look uncomfortable when I tell them he has passed away. I don't get offended anymore when people (men) ask. I guess for some people (men) it's tough to imagine a woman traveling that much? Another really common question I hear is: "What are you doing here?" or "How did you get here?" People seemed surprised that anyone would visit their region or even their countries. Usually I answer pretty straightforward, by telling them a plane or a train or a bus or whatever. I always run into people who have never left their own countries and cannot image anyone coming all the way from America to see their area. Travel really is a mindset as much as anything else.   (Actual Rotterdam station) Leaving Rotterdam, Norway a youngish train attendant was talking to me about which route was best to take to get to the port and seemed to be caught off guard by me returning to America via a ship. "How long does it take? It takes 6 months, right?!" Funny but a lot of people still seem to think it takes months to cross the sea. #WTF?!  We are going on a bigger ship than this! It usually takes about 7 days to make the crossing from NYC to Southampton UK. It takes a bit longer from Norway but still not over 2 weeks even with stops along the way. The number one question French women ask me, when they find out I grew up in south Texas: "Are cowboys real?"  Yes, they are. But most of them are not like on TV. Another common question I hear is: "Is Trump for real?" It is usually asked by everyone who sees my American passport.  Your guess is as good as mine! Another common question or actual statement I hear often in England is: "There is nothing older than 200 years in America! Nothing there to see so you come to Europe!" Ugh! I usually just smile at this and walk away, because its not my job to educate people.  But if you want to learn more about ancient sites in America I'm working on another blog post... This is Chaco Canyon in New Mexico it was occupied from around 800A.D., to the 1,200s. There are plenty of Native American sites across America that are even older.
What are you often asked when you travel? I'd love to hear so leave me a comment below. See you at the airport!  Today's goal: Make time to paint (in between naps) lol It's Tuesday, I know. But it's been a long month in a long, busy year. So I'm ready for a long, lazy vacation. #TrueStory And if I can't travel right now I am hoping to at least work on the planning/details of my next MEGA adventure this week. To be honest I enjoy the planning part of travel too. I love learning about new places.  I need to review best times to travel, weather and of course VISA's restrictions for Australia. Do you have any suggestions? If so leave me a comment or email me, I love hearing from ya'll!
Catch you later~  Although a large portion of the country may disagree, summer has finally arrived. And while the season is great for many reasons (venturing outside sans nine+ layers being one of them), there’s nothing like seeing the first beautiful flowers in bloom.
Now I know that your flowers may have already blossomed, but we are all late bloomers here in the magical southwest. Catch you later - |
AuthorWelcome to my travel blog, my healthy Vegan lifestyle blog and my life! It's a lot, but it's my passions and I just love to write about it. Here I share tips, stories and photos from my adventures and life. This is the place where people can find daily inspiration to travel and motivation to live healthier lives. I'm just an average woman in the world. Follow my journeys as I travel, shop, and meditate my way through life... 
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