But You Can!

When I finished the first leg of my advanture, I tallied up a few statistics:

     Miles traveled: 4,737

  States visited: 16

     Number of first-time-visit states: 8

  Specific towns visited: 20+

  Days/nights on the road: 13 days, 12 nights

  Number of at least partly-sunny days: 5

  Number of mostly-rainy days: 6

  Number of snow-filled days: 2

  Number of nights spent in a motel: 2

Each of those numbers, even the number of rainy days, make me smile, because each one represents something I accomplished.

But there’s something I can’t put a number to that doesn’t make me smile. 

I didn't keep track of the number of people who, when chatting with me or responding to my social media posts, shared either how much they would love to do what I was doing or that they had always dreamed of visiting a place I was visiting. Over and again they’d add, “but I could never do that.” 

Every single time I heard or read those words, I wanted to put my hands on the shoulders of the speaker, look them squarely in the eye, and say, "Oh, but you can!"

While I don’t know all the particulars of those people’s circumstances, I do know that what I did can be done by almost anyone who is physically mobile.

Don’t believe me? 

People in all sorts of circumstances travel alone all over the US and around the world . . .

        people on their own, with a partner, or with a partner & children  

        people with full-time jobs, unemployed, or retired     

        people in their teens all the way up into their 90’s

people with limited funds — from a couple hundred dollars in their pocket to 

a miniscule monthly Social Security or retirement income

people with severe physical limitations 

people undergoing chemotherapy

people whose only mode of transportation is an on-its-last-legs vehicle

people on bikes and on foot

      people not letting their circumstances stop them from achieving a dream

Your dream may not involve travel. 

But whatever it -- your dream -- is, it’s time to stop thinking of why you can’t go after it and, instead, begin planning how you’re going to do just that.

As you read this post, I'm on leg 2 of my advanture. I hope you'll join me on Facebook, where I share a daily recap of where I've been and what I've been up to.