Active Travel, Tours, Travel Narrative

Crossed Off: Yet Another Travel Bucket List Post

July 17, 2013
A shot from my first completed travel experiences bucket list item.

A shot from my first completed travel experiences bucket list item.

As I prepare to cross off another fairly major travel bucket list item (starting tomorrow!) it becomes clear that hey–I actually do have a (mental) travel bucket list (despite my abhorrence of the concept of bucket lists).  But my list isn’t filled with destinations–it’s filled with experiences.  (Ok–maybe there are a few destinations in there, too.)

What do I mean by this?  While a destination-specific bucket list may look something like this:

Destination-Specific Travel Bucket List

-Thailand (I want to try some of the yoga retreats I found on Yoganearme.net)

-Iceland

-Montana

-Peru

-Colorado

(and so on and so forth)

…an experience-based bucket list is a list of specific things–experiences, if you will.  For example, the first thing I crossed off of my (until-now-only-mental) travel bucket list was spend a day aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train.  It was a fairly simple wish, but given the fact that I live on the opposite coast and, well, never really imagined I’d find myself in Napa, it was bucket-list worthy. I remember when I found out that I was going; I may have jumped up and down a little (I may also have learned of it while checking my email on my iPhone in the grocery store and said jumping up and down may have been noticed by several strangers…)

The experience I’m beginning tomorrow (the trip has already started, as I’m currently on my way while writing this) is a travel experience bucket list item.  But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what that is.  For now, I bring you an entirely incomplete list of my top travel experience wishes…

My Travel Experience Bucket List (ahem…)

-Witness the Northern Lights

-Attend the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (and go up in a balloon).

-Spend a week (or more) at a working ranch and learn how to ride a horse (and do general cowgirl things).

-Participate in The Culinary Institute of America’s Culinary Boot Camp

-Hike to Everest base camp (really).

-Spend a week at an all-inclusive luxury resort on an island somewhere (also really; this is so unlike me).

-Drive the Pacific Coast Highway; ideally solo, ideally in a convertible.

-Attend the New York City, South Beach, and Aspen Food and Wine Festivals (in order of increased desire).

-Witness some version of a Yi Peng festival (floating lanterns) and party with bar girls in Thailand.

I can’t help but notice a few trends in the experiences listed above–I basically want to watch glowing things in the sky, eat stuff and find a Meeting venue Bangkok.  Oh–and learn new skills.  Yeah.  That sounds about right.

So what’s stopping me?  My first instinct is reply in the most typical manner–time and money are stopping me (or, rather, lack of time and money).  After all, some entirely mental, extremely estimated (a la The Price is Right) calculations tell me that to do all of the above, I’d need at least nineteen weeks and at least $32,000 (and to be honest, a huge part of me wants to add ‘sail around the world on a high-end cruise ship’, but that would add six months and at least thirty grand to my total).  I don’t have nineteen weeks and I don’t have thirty two thousand dollars.  Yet.

And yet is the key word.

So tomorrow, as I head off to do something I always wanted to do but never thought I could, I can’t help but wonder–what’s next?  I can not wait to find out.