Wanderer. Explorer. Anthropologist. Seeker of truth.

I travel because I can’t help it. A switch flips in my brain – Go, Move, Now! This must be the same biological imperative that launches the Arctic Tern on its annual roundtrip flight from the Arctic to Antarctica. By far the longest migration known in the animal kingdom, these 4 ounce birds rack up to 56,000 frequent flyer miles every year.

I was not a fledgeling chick when I started moving around the globe. It wasn’t until 1987 that I flew across my first ocean. I was working in a mountaineering store in Denver when I was asked by a customer if I would be her base camp manager for a climbing expedition to the third highest mountain in the world.  Kangchenjunga? Nepal?  The atlas helped with location but gave no clue as to how three months in the Himalaya would change my life.

I returned home and became an instructor for the Colorado Outward Bound School.   That led to becoming a trekking guide across the Himalaya. When I turned 30, I thought I should stop sleeping in a tent and find a career so I started working at a traditional travel agency. Four years later, I opened my own business and became a member of The Travel Society.

My travel resume includes working in Zambia at a safari lodge, living in Egypt while running my business from Luxor, and a year in Warsaw, Poland working and traveling around Europe. I’ve ticked off 77 countries… and counting.

Adventurer. Connector. Counselor. Escape Artist.

To me, travel is putting yourself outside of your comfort zone.   It’s the unfamiliar dirt path that leads you to the thunderous roar of Victoria Falls.  It’s the lovely “conversation” you have with the Turkish man in the spice market even though neither or you speak the same language.    It’s the satisfaction you feel after popping another momo in your mouth as you marvel at the beauty of the nearby rice fields.  Travel is the pride (and disbelief) you feel after (awkwardly) plunging your body into the sea and finding yourself swimming toward the whale shark (rather than away from it!)  It’s the ever-so-brief eye contact you – accidentally – share with the silverback gorilla that stirs your soul.

My earliest and fondest memories of travel are with my mom as we hauled our luggage up a steep cobblestone hill in the Altstadt of Nurnberg to see my Oma.   From a young age, I understood how travel is an essential connector.   We travel to connect with family and friends.   We travel to connect with nature, culture, spirituality, and/or history.   And sometimes we set off to reconnect with ourselves.

Professionally, I have worked in education and mental health for over 20 years.  Serendipitously, I started working with Dana in 2023 at The Travel Society.   Being able to plan adventures for others is genuine vicarious excitement!  The possibilities are endless.  Each adventure can be as unique as the traveler.  And I hope that, like me, when your landing gear hits the runway, you are already dreaming of your next adventure.