Traveling Well

Two recent articles in the New York Times attest to the lure of traveling, especially in the United States. First, Rebecca Flint Marx’s article on exploring the Lincoln Highway is particularly interesting to me because it follows one of the methods that I enjoy, mainly taking a back road for a long journey to experience America on the road less traveled.  Marx and her companion traveled US30, the Lincoln Highway, to find the out of the way and the interesting. It was a relatively short piece for such a big subject. Nevertheless, it is a fun and inspiring read.

A second article, which is really a conversation between two travel writers, Philip Caputo and William Least Heat-Moon, takes a more philosophical approach to the act of travel. Like Marx, both men consider the benefits of travel on the two lane roads of America, but perhaps the more interesting portion of the conversation was the difference between a tourist and a traveler. While both men were kinder to the tourist than I might have been, I nonetheless think their analysis is correct. I might add that the distance traveled is not what makes a tourist or a traveler. Yet, my retort is that traveling to a place where English is not spoken reveals truths about yourself and provides lessons to learn for the traveler. It is true that it does not matter how travel occurs or where; however, a level of unfamiliarity reveals more than a standard tourist route.