HasTowelWillTravel's VirtualTourist Home Page

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Always have a towel at the ready

Why a Towel?

"The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

10/19/2009: Yay for updating and procrastinating from work!! The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight, with 2/4 of my thesis chapters done and ready to go. Now just finishing the last ones, formatting the thesis, finishing all of my classes, oh and defending against my committee. Just some small things :P
In light of all this work, I've been stuck here for most of the fall term. Which isn't totally a bad thing, I guess. Next weekend I'm hoping to venture out to one of the state parks to see the foliage turn and take a much-needed break from studying and typing. I'm looking forward to it. And then, once this is all done, the move further east to North Carolina! I'm kinda excited about heading out there, seeing a new part of the country, plus being close to forests, mountains, and the ocean once more is awesome. Can't wait to do more hiking and camping. And not having -30F winters is nice as well :)
As for more detailed travel, will head to Colorado for the holidays, and then next year who knows... I have some frequent flier miles I need to start using, and a friend down in Mexico for 3 months doing research... so maybe swinging back to Latin America (I'd love to go see the jungles down in South America... that might be a little later in the year though).

Also, as part of an ongoing, long-term project, I am in training to gear up for a bike ride across Asia. This has been a goal of mine for a while, and I'm telling myself that when I graduate with my degree (whether MS or PhD depends on how impatient I am), I will undertake a bike ride across Asia. That is a couple years away, perfect to get into good riding shape and save some money for the 5-8 month journey. Right now it is looking like Istanbul to Kathmandu. But an extension through Southeast Asia would be a lot of fun as well. We'll see. If you have any input, feel free to let me know.

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Riding out a sandstorm, waiting for the sunset

A Bit About Me

I pursue ethnobotany, photography and cooking to inspire and capture those moments that truly mean something, and that is why I travel, interact with people, exist.

I am currently a graduate student studying ethnobotany. This is a fabulous discipline, as it involves chemistry, medicine, anthropology, botany, and travel. It has already led me to Ecuador, Alaska, and North Dakota, and trips to Chile, Bhutan, and Africa are in the works. I am ecstatic to be studying this arena, and am looking forward to completing more studies as time goes forward.

In my spare time, I enjoy exploring the great outdoors. I am an avid backpacker, hiker, biker, and kayaker. My idea of a great weekend is hopping off to a local mountain (hard to find in Illinois) and roaming around for a few days.

There's much more to me than I can fit in this tiny space, so I will leave it at that, with an open invitation to all to come and meet more of me...

--"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be." Douglas Adams

--"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts." Mark Twain

--"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as a fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life." John Muir

--"I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange. " Dale Cooper (from Twin Peaks)