Itchy Feet

Standing on top of Pike's Peak.  What a view!

Made it to the Eiffel
Tower - Vietnam version

There are a lot of funny things my little Granny Wade used to say that have crept into my vocabulary.  Just the other day I was visiting with cousin Madeline Ruth (Ruth was Little Granny's name) and out of my mouth came "Well I swan!"  She just looked at me and rolled her eyes.  Yep, Little Granny never swore, but she swanned at all kinds of unusual events.  She used to also say company was coming if her nose itched, money was coming to her if her right hand itched, money going out the door if the left hand itched.  She would probably say I have itchy feet, and she would be right. 

Me crossing the continental divide
via the Panama Canal.

I love to travel.  When I moved to Thailand to teach I
visited as many places as I could because you never know when you'll get back to a place again.  So one dark night I was riding a bus from Chang Mai in the north back to my school in the south along a highway that was very near the border with the country we used to call Burma.  The moon was full and lighting up the mountains and jungles of modern day Myanmar, but I was thinking of the stories from bomber crews in World War II who flew the treacherous Burma hump.  I think I got a good picture of what they meant that night looking out my bus window.  Which got me to thinking.  I had seen a lot of southeast Asia in that year and learned a lot of their geography.  More, I was ashamed to say, than I knew or had seen of my own country or even my own state.  Well, I decided then and there to correct that problem once I
returned to Tennessee. 



That's me standing on
the Bridge on the
River Kwai.

Since that dark night in Asia I have been to every county courthouse in the state of Tennessee, visited every state park in Georgia, and at least stuck a toe in every Florida county (67!).  Since retiring from teaching and moving into an RV I've traveled to every state east of the Mississippi, summered on the coast of North Carolina, learned to spot birds in New Mexico, and kayaked with gators in the Okefenokee.  Oh, but there is still so much more to see and do.  Just hope there's time for me to get there and do it all.  If I sit still in one place for more than 2 months my itchy feet start making me crazy.  What do you think Little Granny would say to that?  "Well I swan!"