I am a travel writer and what I mean by that is I write when I travel-or is that I travel to write? Of the couple hundred or so Nomadic Spirit Travelogue entries you'll find here just a few were tapped out between journeys. I'm not sure why this happens, why I don't write when stationary. It's not that I don't have the time for it (I do). It's not that I work extra hard while travelling to keep the writing habit up (I don't). Writing things down is important to me, but somehow that mode of expression asserts itself most strongly when the world is streaming by. I don't question it much.

Fortunately, I've spent much of my time since April Fool's day, 1994 on one journey or another. There have been several journeys and your ticket to thumb-along on any of them is only a button click away...
 

Australia

June 1994 through March 1995

I'd planned to be in Australia for three weeks. You'll notice it took a little longer to drag myself away. I did leave after five months-so I could give the best man's speech at a wedding in Michigan...and visit family over Christmas-but went back right after the holidays.

South East Asia

March 1995 through June 1995

This was my first trip to someplace truly 'other', my first experience in non-western cultures. Includes Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. Oh, and what a variety these places offer!

Western USA

April 1996 through July 1996

This one was something of a change of pace. I'd always backpacked my way through the various journeys, but this was anything but travelling light.

Adventurous Missed Adventure

November 1996 through May 1997

This was supposed to be titled simply, Africa but I never even got there. Instead, family tragedy brought me home and, as seems ever the case, new pathways beckoned in the aftermath.

Highways

June 1997 through October 1997

For a long while it's been on my mind: try to understand the unfolding of the United States in the 20th century by retracing its main street, Route 66. Other highways-and other adventures-come into play, but this series is dominated by The Mother Road.

The Quality of Being Stationary

January 1998

I've got Zen on the brain.  An attempt to write something while at rest:

In the margins    05 JAN 98
 

Cycling China

April through October :: 1998

This was a doozy. Six and a half months in duration. Six thousand kilometers of cycling. A country mesmerising in its startling beauty as well as its crushing pollution. And ever the enigma.

 

The Unfathomable

September 13 :: 2001

No. Not travelling. The world came to my doorstep. In a cataclysm. And woke me from the slumbers

 

The Haida Gwaii

September 5 to ??? :: 2001

To the fabled Haida Gwaii, the Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia's northern coast. By bicycle and ferry up the Inside Passage.