Welcome to Travels with Evie

I guess I have a long history of  “solo adventure travel” as evidenced by this picture taken when I was 4 or 5 years old.  My grandmother “Evelyn” put me on the train in Chehalis, Washington all by myself and then drove like a mad woman the 3-5 miles to Centralia to meet me at the end of my journey.  I see a bit of trepidation on my face. I remember that little white dress with red polka dots, undoubtedly hand sewn by my Mom who made almost all of our clothes in those days. She usually dressed us alike, so perhaps this was my first time having a dress all my own. Love that little skinned knee. Throughout the 31 years that I was married, I often travelled alone for business. After my husband died in 1999, I developed a fondness for “going far” for relatively short trips (often a long weekend). This was partly because I couldn’t be away from my business for long, but also because I seemed to have a gift for developing deep relationships quickly. I always know that I’ll sit by the most interesting person and that I will be safe and well. The flight attendants always think I work for the airline and the hotel employees always take great care of me. “Travel Angels” everywhere.

People are continually amazed that I would go to Singapore, Scotland or Beijing for a long weekend – but it works. For me it’s all about the journey and my adventure always begins the moment I leave my home. My well-tested theory is that if you go a long way and get back home within 5 days maximum, then your body doesn’t realize that it was away. I usually stay pretty much on Seattle time for eating and sleeping and experience little or no jet lag when I come back home.

I believe that this is my world and I belong.