How I Became an Immersion Traveler

Traveling solo means you get to do whatever you choose.

  

I became an immersion traveler three months after my divorce became final. My first trip on my own was a long weekend. My ex moved in to stay with our teenage daughters; I went to a spa on Long Island. It was pretty wonderful, but on the first day I realized I needed to do more than be pampered. I asked my masseuse what her favorite activity was and she invited me to join her that afternoon, painting the house of a senior citizen in her neighborhood. I’d never painted a room before, but I pitched in and learned how to prepare a wall and begin painting it. The next morning, on my nature hike, I asked the leader where she liked to take her kids on weekends. She told me about a wonderful installation art museum I’d never heard of before.

The add-on activities became my most cherished memories from that weekend – in addition, of course, to the facial and hot stones massage.

 

It’s not like I was new to traveling after my divorce. I’d traveled extensively with my ex, but that was a whole different world. I didn’t really take part in the planning, my fault. I left the decisions about where to go and what to see to him, my mistake. He always seemed to know where he wanted to go and it sounded good to me. I was more the passive traveler. My contribution here and there was adding places I knew about from reading or experience. When we were in Milan and Vienna I made it a priority to go to the opera and in Florence I insisted on time for the flea markets, and in Rome, I knew exactly where to go for the best tartufo – my favorite Italian ice cream dessert made with Neapolitan gelato scooped into balls and covered with dark chocolate.

 

Once I found myself single and on my own, I remembered how I’d always wanted to take one of those long, exotic-sounding immersion travel trips to Europe or Costa Rica to jump into a different culture, learn the language, experience the food, traditions, and activities as a local and become one of them. I’d never taken a trip like that because of time and money constraints, but it sounded like the most meaningful way for me to travel, to get involved.

 

Voila. Immersion Travel USA was born. I applied the concept of European Immersion Travel right here, to my own way of life with accessible travel opportunities. Living life on a tight budget with my newly found single freedom, I learned to expand and increase my travel experiences in mostly free or very inexpensive ways.

 

Weekend getaways with the family became outdoor adventures in State Parks where the girls and I could volunteer our time and talents doing a wide variety of needed jobs, hike, enjoy each other, and camp out or stay in really cute cabins with modern facilities for about $50 for the weekend.

As a writer and single mom, I desperately needed think-time on my own. I did some research and learned that the National Park Service (NPS) has an extensive Volunteers-in-Parks (VIP) program (www.nps.gov/archive/volunteer/air.htm). Twenty-nine national parks currently offer artist-in-residence programs, including Acadia National Park, Maine; Buffalo National River, Arkansas; Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio; Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming; Herbert Hoover National Historical Site, Iowa; Isle Royale National Park, Michigan; and North Cascades National Park, Washington among others.

 

The artist-in-residence programs bring together professionals in the arts to publicize, share, and preserve resources in our national parks and to educate and communicate with the public.  Search “Artist-in-Residence” at http://www.nps.gov; a few programs charge a nominal, nonrefundable application fee. Visual artists, photographers, sculptors, performers, writers, composers, craftspeople, and other artists are invited to apply to live and work in the parks. I applied and received free housing and a free pass to the Everglades National Park, and free time to devote to my writing.

 Immersion travel includes Helping (volunteering), Learning (new skills), Working (short and longer term jobs, many freebies or trades), Caring (animals’ rights and care and the arts), and Playing (out of the box fun stuff!)– great activities for all ages and stages of life. And I haven’t forgotten about spa possibilities. I’ve just learned there is more to a weekend than pampering–and combining pampering, learning, hiking, and growing is just my style.

 

 

Parker Dam, PA

 

 

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Celebrate Earth Day and Everyday: Leave No Trace Behind

Leave No Trace Behind while drinking hot chocolate. I had a summer job working in Alaska’s Denali National Park, performing living history vignettes for visitors on women in the gold rush and conservation. On my day off, I was one of 51 other people signed up for an eight hour bus trip into Denali National Park.
In an effort to cut down on the impact of approximately 3 million visitors each year to the park, individual cars were not allowed past the first few miles. Buses took visitors through the park, stopping to observe bear, moose, sheep, ptarmigan, and whatever else could be seen from the bus with binoculars. On that particular day a huge black wolf followed our bus for about a mile and later we came across a family of red fox with three babies peeking out from their fox holes between the rocks. It was very exciting. I learned that brown bear come in a multitude of colors including black, brown, grayish and tone.
We stopped for a bathroom and snack break. Annaleigh, the bus driver, handed out cookies and asked for our attention as she put out two containers, one blue, one red. “The blue container has hot chocolate for you to enjoy. The red container is for you to spill out the excess hot chocolate you don’t drink.” She paused as we all looked at her quizzically. “We practice Leave no Trace behind. Do not spill out any drinks onto the ground. That’s why I put a drop cloth under the hot chocolate, to collect any drips. The sugar, milk and chocolate can make animals sick and don’t belong in the ground. Please think about everything you are doing, and leave no trace behind yourself. Nothing should change because you were here to visit.”
I thought back to the night I’d had a date with a nonstop, gum chewing lawyer from New Jersey. As he drove, he removed a piece of gum from his mouth, started a new a stick, and dropped something out of the window.
“What did you just do?” I snapped at him.
“What are you, my mother?” he darted back.
“Really, did you just litter?”
“No,” he said in a little bad boy voice caught in the act.
“Did you throw out the gum or the wrapper?”
“Both,” he said. I couldn’t believe it. I was blown away that anyone in this day and time would throw anything out of a window as if it didn’t matter.
“A bird could choke and die on your old gum.” I chose not to see the gum chewing lawyer again, but I did send him a gift, a reusable trash bag for his car.
The night before my bus ride into Denali I had attended a class with Park Ranger Tom on the importance of practicing Leave No Trace Behind for a backcountry wilderness hiking trip I planned to take. “You need to understand,” said Ranger Tom, “that Leave No Trace is an attitude that applies to your own front porch, backyard or park just as much as it does to the wilderness.”
I practice his words. Earth Day will be celebrated this month all over the country in many different ways. Many communities are holding events with exhibitors providing information on recycling, global warming, and hybrid vehicles. Visitors are encouraged to walk, bike or take the bus to participating events.
What will you do to celebrate Earth Day? My friend Marlene collects lint from the clothes dryer to stuff pillows. Janice collects egg cartons to give to a friend with chickens. And Sarah recycles the tops of bottles for art projects at her local school. What will your celebration or contribution be? For my Earth Day pre-planning event, I weaned myself off of paper towels in the kitchen and am amazed by the efficiency of dish towels. On Earth Day, I’m going to take a walk in a nature preserve, enjoying it exactly the way it is, without leaving anything behind but my footsteps.

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