Gage17's VirtualTourist Home Page

Greetings and welcome to my VT homepage! Since I have more or less been living out of a suitcase for the past two years, it's nice to have some place to call home, even if it is in cyberspace.

In the past decade, I have lived all over America - Dallas, Sacramento, New York, Miami, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Anchorage, and most recently in Las Vegas. All these moves have been motivated by a desire to experience different places and to work various interesting jobs... and of course some of the above cities make for great gateways to international destinations! I am rather obsessed with travel and cannot seem to get enough of it. When I was younger, a simple roadtrip across the US would suffice to quench the travel bug within, but as I got older, I realized that I am simply built to travel... and my experiences on the road have definitely shaped who I am today.

I have only begun to build this website, and now I'm concentrating on getting all the photos uploaded and then I'll get to the text. Your patience is greatly appreciated, and please come visit again. I look forward to participating in the VT community!

The only travel pages that are close to complete are:

Vietnam
Tibet
Las Vegas
China
New York City

My soul resides in the West. To me, the West is embodied in the rustic mountains, the wide meadows, the native peoples, the rich forests, the frontier pioneers, the rugged coastlines, the barren deserts, the colors of the sunsets. I have lived on both US coasts, but I am definitely of the West.

The vastness is of great appeal to me, yet it works as a detriment when it comes to settling down in one spot. Of course, in one city you have a wealth of resources surrounding you in day or weekend getaways, but I have yet to find that perfect place for me that has it all...

For example, I loved living in Colorado, but there's no ocean. I loved living in Washington, but it rains a lot. I loved living in California, but it's a crowded state. And I love living in Nevada, but it gets too darn hot.

Alright, alright... I know that realistically no one place will be "perfect" and have it all for me and that any place will have its good points as well as bad... and that's why I enjoy traveling so much, because I can go anywhere I need to in order to satisfy all my spiritual cravings. I'll pick a spot one of these days to settle down for a bit, and it may even be back in one of the aforementioned states, but one thing I know for sure... it will be in the West.

Ah, where to go next? It's difficult to decide sometimes... so many marvelous destinations. I have my wish list, but it seems to change all the time... Prague, South America, Russia, Tunisia, some remote island in the South Pacific. Usually, circumstance makes the decision for me, and sometimes there are signs as well. At this point in my life, though, I realize that I can travel any time I like... without going anywhere.

Simply put, there are two great things I love about traveling ... first of all, it is obviously an amazing experience to actually travel and to be at a certain place in person and to live in that moment. How exciting to realize your spot on the planet and know that you are making a memory! And then later, you have those memories in your head through which you can look back.

Secondly, there is something to be said about armchair travel (which of course is a great asset of the VT travel pages!), and I thrill in the places where my mind can travel as I visualize foreign places and fantasize about a day spent there. I don't know which I enjoy more: traveling or planning to travel.

Just imagine... when you are alone in some indescript place, there is no limit to the places you can visit (or revisit) in your mind. The spirit can soar!

Working in Alaska, I was introduced to the poetry of Robert Service, whose most famous ballads include "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and "The Spell of the Yukon". I love the rhythm and meter of his poems, but it was the one entitled "The Men That Don't Fit In" that particularly touched me. I suppose the words are about those Klondike goldrushers at the turn of the last century, but I can relate to so much that he says, especially in the first stanza. I think it relates well to travelers like myself...

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
He's a man who won't fit in.