connerlayne's VirtualTourist Home Page

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." - Robert Louis Stevenson

My name is Conner Layne. Just after high school life hit me over the head with a hammer. I was about to marry my first and only love. We were introduced in the 9th grade and it was love at first site. I spent four years at the top of my class making no less than an A-. My goals were to graduate high school as Valedictorian, marry Kate, and attend Cal with a full ride. This was it for me. My life seemed spelled out and I was happy. My mom was thrilled although she hated Kate unmercifully and my dad bragged to his friends how his only son would follow family tradition. "Go Cal!" My sister Krissy who also hated the girl I loved, supported me in whatever choices I made and promised that once Kate and I were married, she would learn to like her.

Then there was Travis, my best friend since childhood and my best man. I guess I can thank him later for all he has done for me. You will learn about him later when you see the movie. The summer of the wedding, just after graduation, some photographs were given to me at a post grad party by a friend who I tutored in calculus. He handed me a sealed envelope, gave me a concerned look and thanked me for all I had done to help him. I didn't open the envelope for some reason until the day before my wedding. What I saw would forever change the course of my life.

Somehow, instead of marriage and Berkeley in the fall, I was on a plane destined for Managua, Nicaragua. I used the credits from my honeymoon to get me there. I wasn't sure at the time why I chose Nicaragua, maybe it was because it was the first flight out and all I wanted was to just go! It didn't matter what happened when I got there.

I had no idea what turn my life had suddenly taken. All I knew was that I was suddenly on a personal adventure, a journey nobody could join me. It was the begining of who I would become. The Cal State Berkeley student had vanished and what posessed me was a traveler who only knew to put one foot in front of the other and keep going.

I was at a bar in northern Bolivia and someone asked me, why travel? Like an involuntary relflex the words fell out: "Because it's the way you feel when you land somewhere you've never been, or the pounding in every pulse point in your body when you make a split second decision to by a ticket when you know you shouldn't, but you go anyway, against your own better judgement. You go for a reason that is bigger then you." Then we shared a few beers.

To find out more about my adventure visit www.theartoftravelmovie.com