Today I proudly wore my “I voted” sticker all day long (…not the most flattering picture of me, but what could I do?), and you know, it’s true that it feels good to go out and vote.  I know that sounds all kinds of cheesy and hokey, but at 24, I have only voted in one election thus far and I am hoping that Florida doesn’t screw this one up – I don’t know if I can handle being the butt of more national jokes.
All of the past debacles aside, …

An article on USA Today.com calls Dinosaur World a “slice of roadside Americana,” and you know, I pretty much agree.  The park was exactly what you would expect from a roadside attraction in Plant City – just a relaxing, wholesome experience.  And it was surprisingly low key (meaning there is not even a hint of the Disney World mania present) we were able to just meander through the park at our own pace.
The  trip to Dino World was mainly for my 5-year old nephew Eric – he’s at that stage …

My departure date is creeping nearer and the teary goodbyes and last minute visits have already begun.  As the date nears all of those friends that you touch base with about once a month start emailing in masse.  That’s where I am right now.  I spent this past weekend up in Orlando visiting with college friends and the such – my fraternity (I was in a co-ed honors fraternity) brothers and I had a delicious and thoroughly overpriced meal at Press 101.  The cute café is in the Dr. Phillips …

A couple of minor epiphanies and one major change to the travel plan:

I am a chronic over-planner. I was trying to plan out the minutia – not good. It was driving me absolutely and 100 percent crazy and all of the stress was making me bummed out. My new plan of attack: as long as I know how to get from the airport to my first hostel I’m in the clear.
I worry too far too much. This trip is supposed to be fun – I have approached this …

I have been a very diligent trip planner over the past two weeks and now I feel all defeated about my travel planning.   Today I spent the entire day carefully combing through all of the Lonely Planet and Fodor’s guides relevant to New Zealand and Australia, charting out a specific course, and researching airline flights – today was the culmination of two weeks worth of research on just my South Pacific travels.
And while some friends have questioned the fact that I waited until this late in the game to plot …

I had what one can only describe as a “girly moment” today; by that I mean to say that I had a total meltdown and started crying for no definable reason.  Now, you could certainly chalk the crying-jag to pre-trip stress, but at that moment I just felt the full force of my decision to travel.
That means leaving all of my family and friends behind for a year.  The only ones I will see for eleven months are those joining me for parts of the trip.  I look at my …

So I have recently been informed that my blog is too dry. Okay, well I haven’t found my voice yet as a travel writer ok?!  Anyhow, as Steph is my dearest and closest friend in the world I have taken to heart her comment and acknowledge that I have been remiss in actually putting my hopes and fears out there…so here goes.
 
Today was one of the bad days. All of the wedding madness is over and today the only focus and concern was my RTW trip…and that’s kind of scary …

My brain currently hurts from all of the mind-numbing dullness of reading travel insurance legalese for the past several days.  With my trip just a month away though I had to buckle down and actually choose a travel insurance policy that wouldn’t suck when it came down to making a claim or (hopefully not) being medivaced back to the US.
This is one of the unfortunate realities of a year of traveling around the world – something is probably going to go wrong…and in that case I guess I had better …