Ramblin’ Man: Leonard getting out and seeing the world—without spewing carbon emissions. Photo: courtesy Brendan Leonard
Staycation or see the world? To us, the answer seemed obvious and when we asked out readers that question 67 percent agreed that you should take those big trips. But then again, look at where we live—why not simply explore your own backyard? To delve into the intricacies of that argument we asked world travelers Brendan Leonard and Christie Aschwanden to tell us just how far you need to travel to find enlightenment.
Home Slice
Yes, a far-flung journey now and then can provide a mind-expanding experience. But travel has diminishing returns. The more enraptured you become with elsewhere, the less fully you inhabit your home place. I know.
In 2009, I decided to spend a year within a 100-mile radius of home. At the time I thought I was giving up something. As a pilot’s daughter, travel was my default state of being. But at some point during my 400-plus days of staying put, I found myself fully present and relaxed, and I started to wonder how I’d ever been suckered into thinking life on the go was so fun.
Sure, you can “get away from it all” by flying off to some exotic locale, but this just fosters the mindset that stress resides at home and to escape it you have to go somewhere else. Don’t fall prey to the hype. Travel sucks. If you don’t believe me, take a quick look at Twitter or Facebook and count up how many status updates consist of whining about oppressive airline rules, delayed flights, overpriced food and crappy seat assignments.
A staycation automatically involves less hassle and more leisure than a faraway vacation, because you’re not wasting time in transit and worrying about the details and planning a long trip requires. Whittle away hours of your life standing in line, playing show-n-tell with your underwear collection and being fondled by a TSA bureaucrat if you like, but I’d rather spend time getting intimate with my hottie.
We live in the most awesome place in the world, and it would take a lifetime to see it all. Looking for a new experience? Try this. Draw a 100-mile circle around your house and start exploring all the places within it that you’ve never been.
You can opt for a staycation because it will save you money or stress or because your flight’s carbon footprint will eclipse every good eco-deed you did all year. But the best reason to staycation is that when you stop telling yourself that you have to go away to find what you’re seeking, you give yourself a chance to discover it all right here at home.
Christie Aschwanden is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Mother Jones, Reader’s Digest, Men’s Journal, and Bicycling. She’s a contributing editor for Runner’s World and blogs about science at lastwordonnothing.com
Road Warrior
Sure, you can stay within 100 miles of home your whole year, if all you want to do is play outside. I have nothing against the “staycation.” I take one just about every weekend, one or two days of fun in places along the Front Range that outdoorsfolk in roughly 35 U.S. states would kill to have in their backyard like we do. There’s plenty of adventuring to be done here. But it’s not travel. It doesn’t push you past your comfort zone, besides the sport aspects of it. You get comfortable, complacent, start to feel like maybe you know it all, just a little bit.
To open your mind and wake yourself up, you have to drive a ways, or fly across a border or two. At least until you stop seeing Colorado license plates (yes, past Moab and Indian Creek). Stay away a while—none of this three-day weekend crap, when you’re still thinking about last week’s work on the first day, having fun on the second day, and already thinking about next week’s work on the third day.
When you get away for longer than a couple days, your mind has to learn a new rhythm. After three days, you forget all those e-mails piling up. Maybe you say things like “No one dies with an empty inbox.” You can’t see that pile of laundry that needs to be done, the dishes in the sink, the things in your house you wonder if you’ll ever get around to fixing. Did you need to mow the lawn? Who cares? Out of sight, out of mind. And that’s what a trip should do for you.
When you get away, you often don’t fit in, which is exactly what should happen. Get to those small towns in the middle of nowhere, where not everyone walks down the street in Chacos and has a Rocket Box on their car, and a few local folks might take a second look at you. Fly to a place where they don’t speak American, get humbled and force yourself to rely on the kindness and interpretive skills of strangers. Get further away, so you can come home with a different perspective and remember what’s so great about living here.
Brendan Leonard is a writer and climber who is currently spending a year (or more) living nowhere. More of his writing can be found at semi-rad.com.
