Explore With Me
WORLD TOUR ADVENTURE

Be Courageous!
In 2000, I traveled solo around the world which is key to who I am today. That was a seminal life change for me that continues to inform my life and was the impetus for what I still consider to be my flagship book, Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road.
Travel was the only area of my life where I had no expectations. I anticipated nothing while fully engaging each moment.
Travel is one way I’ve learned more about how the world works and about the history of different cultures. History and geography were not favorite topics of mine in school. Looking back, that is because to my mind, what happened in Rome in the 15th century, for example, seemed to have little connection to the life I was living as a girl and teen in the Manhattan of the 1960s and ’70s. Knowing the world only became interesting to me when I could experience it first hand, especially through its people.
Also, travel has challenged a lot of my assumptions. For example, I assumed that the cultures of New Zealand and Australia were similar because of their geographic proximity. My assumption was not rooted in anything with real teeth, just a casual idea. These two cultures are not at all alike. And I much preferred one to other. Had I not visited New Zealand, I doubt I would have ever known that it was the first country in the world to give women the vote. That tiny but significant bit of information led me to study about the worldwide suffragette movement once I returned home.
When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I had this idea that because I was naturally intelligent and could learn just about anything I put my mind to, that I was “smart.” Travel humbled me in a variety of ways—it showed me how little I knew and how much I had to grow, not so much in intellect, but from a place of compassion and connecting more meaningfully with others.
How To Interact With The Map
