20 Tips for Pretending You're On the Road When You're Not

Unless you’re a full-time nomad, you can’t travel all the time. I’m going to be at home in Missouri for a while, so I began thinking about how I can bring the excitement of the road to my life at home. Here are 20 suggestions to get me (and you) started.

Who cares that I'm only three miles from home?
I've got a cool backpack!

1. Take the bus instead of driving— it’s a fascinating insight into other people’s lives.

2. Host a couchsurfer, preferably one from another country, for a night or two.

3. Pack some goodies and have a picnic in a park.

4. Get yourself lost (preferably in a safe business district or nature area during the day) and see what you discover.

5. At the library, check out a travel guidebook about your home city/state, then discover some new places.

6. Visit the nearest tourist district and pretend that you’re visiting from Albania. 

7. Talk to strangers— in the check-out line at the grocery store, at the library, in the park, and everywhere else. Yes, you’ll get some strange looks, but sometimes you meet fascinating people.

8. Visit a museum or zoo and make a day of it.

9. Have a camp-out in your backyard, complete with tents, a campfire, sing-alongs, hot dogs, and copious amounts of marshmallows.

10. Find some ethnic recipes online and make yourself a Mediterranean feast, a traditional Kenyan meal, or Thai cuisine.

Fortunately, St. Louis has a bazillion free museums.

11. Put together a day pack, walk out your door and turn right. At the next available turn, go left, then right, then left, then right. Continue until you hit a dead end, or are completely lost in the middle of nowhere. Try to find your way home.

12. Pack a suitcase and live out of it for a week. After the week is over, appreciate your full wardrobe, and/or give away some clothes you don’t need.

13. Google-search “Volunteer opportunities in [your city]” and get involved in a community project.

14. If you have a little money saved back, visit a day spa or get a massage.

15. Find a book or some articles online that talk about the history of your city, and learn about it.

16. Get four or five friends together and rent a hotel room (preferably one with a nice pool, a hot tub and a continental breakfast). 

17. Put on sunglasses, a dorky hat, brightly-colored clothes and a fanny pack, then grab your camera and walk around your home city taking pictures of absolutely everything.

18. Unplug your computer, turn off your cell phone, and hide out at home for a day.

19. Search your community’s local calendar for events that might be fun to attend: concerts, festivals, Renaissance faires, Earth Day celebrations, public service seminars, etc.

20. Take a familiar walk or drive, and enjoy the details you don’t usually notice. Smile. Appreciate the moment. See beauty in the ordinary. Breathe.

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Have a travel question? Leave a comment and I’ll try to answer!