The Rainforest

Europe

Ireland

my father and his family came from denmark. i would love to visit there. lookng up my family would be like needle in a haystack. my father is long dead and i heard from my mother that they wouldn’t accept me. but i don’t know if it’s true because of so many lies that were told to keep me from looking and such. anyway, i would still love to go there and see the wonderful places and get immersed in the culture, history and fun of the land. i’ve always been very viking you know!!! (that journey will never happen because i’m broke and in poor health, but i can dream!)

second probably oregon again to visit family and friends (that one is a strong possibility in a few years). we lived in salem for 5mos but it wasn’t a happy experience so i would love to go back under BETTER circumstances and really get to enjoy it.

third check out my surroundings. i would love to see more of nevada and i promised myself i would. interesting places, ppl and things to see right here in my own backyard. (that i can do now just have to find the time and the resources to do it)

The most wonderful trip I ever took was driving through Provence for three weeks with my husband.  I’d love to go back, but his health won’t allow him to travel any more, and I wouldn’t want to go alone.

Last year I went to Peru and Machu Picchu on a group trip, and enjoyed it very much.  This Fall, I’m planning to go to Vietnam and Cambodia with the same group (Overseas Adventure Travel).  They’re small groups and I felt comfortable going alone.

Other places on my list are Greece, Turkey and Tuscany.  Maybe Rome.  I’ve been to Venice and don’t want to repeat anything.  There are too many places I haven’t been.

I’d also like to see parts of the US I haven’t seen — I’ve been to a number of national parks in the New Mexico, Arizona and Utah area.  I’d love to see Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. 

Joan Larsen - your love of travelling is evident.  You sound so much like me it made me smile.  I grew up on a very isolated farm in the 70’s where going to town was a rare event and going to school only happened when we weren’t needed on the farm.  I left home at 16 determined to see the world.  I have backpacked all over Africa, most of Europe and Asia and been to every state in the US with the exception of Alaska. Not having money didn’t stop me,  I worked wherever I went, and hitched rides on planes, boats, trains or whatever to get to the next place.   I came home, finished college and have worked two jobs for most of my life but have taken every opportunity to travel that I could.   I love the Irish wit (and pubs), the German "can do" attitude, the people of Cambodia and most of Africa (with the exception of the scorpion that wanted to take up residence in my sleeping bag and the herd of giraffes that I thought I could outrun).  I am already planning my next trip with a husband that was at first a self-described travel-phobe but who has had so many memorable moments on our trips that he almost likes it more than me. 

Brenda … as you might guess with inveterate travellers, even my husband wants to hear just where you went in Africa, what you liked best, what are the scariest moments you remember — well, pretty much write us a book please!!!

As you might guess, I write about travel when the spirit moves me — and it does move me a lot.  I admit to being an inveterate traveller, always researching the next faraway place and how I am going to make it even more special.  I am a hot air balloonist so if I can work that in in the Alps or Australia, you know I am going to.  That sort of thing.

Real life?  For too many years to mention, I have been in political offices in my state, giving me a full life closer to home.  But I have this terrible need to write every moment I have free so once in a while you might see my name here and there.  Another book I have worked on with another just came out last week, and just thought - perhaps I will put something on on the Book Party here.  Always - I find - there is that moment of excitement on seeing the finished product, but with the long time between completion and publication, I am usually off and running on more than one other project.  That is just about past history. 

My thinking:  it is the journey and not the destination in everything I do, so I make that journey all I can make it.  And if you want to see excitement in the flesh, you will find it in me … as I always have something new and different on the back burner, simmering.

But enough of me, please please tell me more of your life "on the road"!

I’ve travelled extensively. I am now content to remain home and travel to places within the United States.

I am in the process of gathering documentation on my family for a book on our geneology. This will take me to several states in the United States and possibly abroad.

I enjoy the peacefulness of the hamptons.