Itchy Feet

Last night I watched one episode of the new PBS series, National Parks: America's Best Idea. I was once again grasped by the realization that there is too much world to see, even here in the US, to stay in one place for very long. I've been dying to take a vacation, even a week-long, in-country trip to somewhere new. I have a whole list of places I've never been. Ideally, I'd really like to take about 4-5 months to travel.

In 1 year and 4 months I will have paid off all my debt other than my car and my student loans. At that point, I would only need to set aside about $2500 + basic living expenses in order to take 5 months off to travel. I think with my car, tent, backpack, and shoes, I could easily see a lot of the country with a minimal budget. Over the last few years, I've really wanted to hike all or part of the AT. I've planned numerous backpacking trips all over the Southwest that I've never had an opportunity to take. My boss keeps telling me that he's planning to retire in a year. Perhaps by then, I'll be ready to take some time off before job-hunting again.

I don't really want to just travel for the sake of traveling though. I think I'd like to design a service-oriented trip. I could find volunteer organizations in every state I want to visit and spend time working for them while I'm there. Maybe even just clean up trash in one of the National Parks I want to see; something to give my trip greater purpose than just sight seeing. Probably just one of my grand ideas that I'll hardly see to fruition, but I'd like to see what I can put together. If you have any good ideas for places to visit and volunteer, let me know. Maybe I can at least start mapping a route and thinking through the logistics.