As a scruffy pony-tailed kid, I scooped slimy polliwogs from the muddy waters of Kanab Creek and jumped from sandstone cliffs into water black and deep at the lake off the highway just outside town. And summer at dusk, nothing was better than getting buried past my knees in the cool sand of the Coral Dunes a little further down the road.

But getting a passport, traveling abroad? Wasn’t even on my radar…  No one in my family had been out of the country. Seeing the world, only something I’d read about in books…

I’m a bit of a late bloomer for an online travel blogger wannabe. I believe I picked up my first readers (if you are blessed to not understand yet what “readers” are, allow me to elaborate: One day, you may find yourself in a dark restaurant & out of the blue, oddly, you won’t be able to read the menu. You’ll move the words a bit further away from your face & that will help… for awhile. Then one day, to your horror, you find your arms aren’t long enough to bring the menu into focus no matter how much you adjust your arms AND your eyes. This marks the historic traumatic time you are officially middle aged AND the dread day you must acquire your first “readers“… )(Now, back to our story & from the top….) As I was saying, I picked up my first readers and my first passport the same year.

Our first international ventures were trips to Caribbean beaches and Mexico all-inclusive resorts sprinkled with a few cruises. They found me stimulated (and tan, ahhh, loved those tans…) but craving more, much more meaningful authentic connections to culture, history and the locals. My husband Dave and I, bored with sunning by the pool and frustrated by resort group tours, learned what we loved best was to “get off the reservation“. Our best over the top to die for experiences came from simply hiring a local cab driver for the day in a trial and error exploration on our own. (Proven Natalie fact: Cab drivers hired for an entire day via the hotel concierge will have your back every. single. time. Cab Blog story coming later… it will be epic, I promise!)

What happened to incite this insane compulsion and need to get to the next destination? The trigger really was India in 2018, a magical ride that transported me from the routine and familiar to an unknown and mystical foreign existence where I met and connected with people, history, food, culture and vibrant colors, a stimulation of my senses beyond what I’d ever imagined. My blood started pumping faster, my mind and adrenaline raced. I barely slept with the anticipation at what new adventure await the next day. And, I came home wanting more, much MUCH more of it. More of where even crossing a street and reading a sign seemed a new and almost frightening adventure to be explored and discovered. I was hooked. I was SO very hooked. #Natalie has a travel addiction was born. And I began to write about it.

Then something happened when I shared my written travel experiences with friends, and family … something important.

While I enjoyed immensely the interaction and feedback I received, an overall theme kept repeating in my mind. I realized that whether it be time, health, resources, or just the overall impracticality of travel, although many share my passion for travel, it just isn’t possible for some to venture just yet (or perhaps ever) to a destination. And… that led my heart to ache a bit…to long to bring those folks with me…Somehow. Some way.