Why Travel?

Lessons from the Road
Many people were skeptical of our extended road trip through the U.S. Especially during what was a very controversial Presidential election process to say the least. There were questions of safety and security because much of our travel has been in the East and deep South East. There were concerns about people knowing we were not from the U.S. during the election. We had concerns about the difficulties in crossing the border back into Canada several times by air with our car still in the U.S. This post is to tell you all that it was honestly all a bunch of crap!

Safe and Secure
The people that we have met have been truly warm, welcoming, friendly and more than hospitable. And we have not made a point of telling people that we are Canadian. If asked we do, but we are not wearing large Canadian flags on purpose. Most people are just genuinely nice! Maybe after spending 9 years in downtown Vancouver we have become accustomed to seeing diversity every day. We love cities and most downtowns are diverse. Even in the South. 

From a work and technology standpoint we have had a few minor inconveniences that were easily overcome. Calls to and from our credit card companies (personal and business) to verify card use in Vancouver one day, Miami the next and then in Texas two weeks later. One new credit card (due to some security issue) shipped to New Orleans in 2 days (thanks RBC Visa!). And the pain in the ass of having to constantly verify Hootsuite, Word Press, iTunes etc because they are being used by different IP addresses almost every day. But we have found all of our banking and technology providers to be really on top of the security themselves so that we don’t have to be.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime. ~ Mark Twain

Backroads
It is a fact that much of our time has been spent in big cities, and in general city folk are usually considered more forward thinking. But we have spent a few days in several smaller communities (Mobile, Biloxi, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles) and here the people were actually ‘over the top’ genuine and friendly. Almost to the point where we feel bad (us friendly Canadians) if we don’t say good morning to everyone we pass on the sidewalk. The ‘Cajun’ way will stick with us for a while. And has made us more interested in visiting Nova Scotia, Eastern Quebec and Maine to learn more about Acadian history.

Travel more, Travel often
Many articles have been written about how travel is good for the world. The key point in all of these is to leave your comfort zone. It is easier to understand other people’s culture and ideas if you spend time in their community. Not everyone can travel for days, weeks or months. But sometimes just getting out of your our comfort zone is enough to get a new perspective. Drive an hour out of town, across your city to another neighbourhood or to a different community for Sunday brunch. Go shop in a different grocery store. Go to an independent coffee shop instead of your regular Tim’s or Starbucks. If you can, leave your province or state. If you can, leave your country. If you can, leave your continent. 

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

 

We, Jeff and Tara Ciecko of CK Golf write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other an Industry Blog where we comment on general business and internet marketing best practices, sales strategies and give golf industry related opinions. We have owned CK Golf  for 9 years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries. As of August 2016 our life and our business will be ‘location independent’. Our 19th Hole Blog is about the places we visit and the things we do. You can also follow our road trip at foodwinetravel.ca/roadtrip. If you have any questions or comments, or happen to be in the same location as us please reach out and contact us anytime.