This is my first post participating in the From Left to Write Book Club. Our instructions are to write a post inspired by the book we were given, in this case The Unexpected Circumnavigation by Christi Grab, rather than a review. Truth be told, most of the posts that I call “reviews” are really musings (it’s my blog, I’ll muse if I want to), but I’m going with a simpler format and giving myself permission to go further afield than usual in this post.
The book club’s introductory post to the book asked about our dream vacations, so I will riff off that.
The Unexpected Circumnavigation covers Part 1 of an around the world boat trip, covering the South Pacific portion of the journey. As a Midwesterner, that has never been a dream of mine. Rafting down the Mississippi, yes; boating around the world, no. I once drooled over the National Geographic’s Around the World by Private Jet tour, but quickly squashed that idea when I saw the price. That’s too much for even a once in a lifetime trip. But it’s fun to dream about.
I like to dream about trips. I have planned, to considerable detail, many trips that I have never taken. For me, planning a trip is the distraction that will work when everything else fails to be diverting. Planning trips helped me survive cancer, divorce, the deaths of each of my parents, and many lesser tragedies in life. Eighty percent of those planned trips never materialized, but they served their purpose in taking myself out of my life for awhile, much like a good book but with more creative action on my part. The closest planned trip that I have yet to take is Springfield, Illinois. The farthest is Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The Web has made trip planning easier making it possible to virtually explore different places more often than I used to. But I’ve lost something, too. There’s nothing quite like the relaxed energy present when propped up in bed, surrounded by travel guides, scribbled lists, and hastily drawn maps.
A bonus of trip-planning as a hobby is that my knowledge of geography has much improved over the years.
Does anyone else plan trips as a hobby? People in real life look at me funny when I say that I like to plan trips that I never take.
If I understand the From Left to Write Book Club correctly, some time on Tuesday a post will show up on the book club blog that links to all of our posts inspired by this book. Should be fun reading!
