Places you visit are a part of who you are.
It’s been quite a long time since I wrote a blog, but here I go. A lot has changed since I last shared a story of the places I visit. My YouTube channel has finally reached over 1,000 subscribers. I was pretty proud of that. It only took me over 4 years to reach that milestone. I finally got to see the Gulf of Mexico. I had dreamed of seeing that for years. I finally got to hold an alligator in Alabama. I’ve been to 11 of the 12 southeastern states that I have on my radar. Life has been pretty good.
One of the best things that has happened is that I have truly enjoyed visiting places I’ve never been before. The places you visit do truly become part of who you are. You may not physically live in a place you have visited, but it does become part of your heart and soul. I have always felt at home everywhere I have traveled.
As many of you know, I am very fond of traveling. I go anywhere and everywhere I can on my days off. I’m sure that you’ve seen on the news by now the horrific events that have happened across the southeastern states the last few days. A powerful hurricane came through and has left behind a path of devastation. It’s really heartbreaking to see places that you love torn apart. Once you become a traveler, the places you travel to seem like home. You go to Maggie Valley to buy apples from the same store every year. You stop by an awesome farm in Bryson City to get dream whips every time you’re in the area because you love their energy and commitment to the people that visit them. You look forward to these trips because you have come to love the area that these people call home, because these places also have a piece of your heart.
One of the places that is dear to my heart in the upstate of South Carolina is Pretty Place. I’ll always have the memories of my cousin telling me that it better be pretty or she was going to throw me off the mountain because we had passed by it on our way down the mountain, so we had to go back up the mountain to get to it. I didn’t even know that it had been damaged until I saw the video on Facebook. My parents and I have visited several times over the years since my first visit, and it always seems like a place I belong.
My mom and I were recently on vacation and passed through many of the areas that have been hit hard. We were heading home on Interstate 40 exactly one week before it collapsed due to the raging flood waters that was underneath it. During the time we were passing through the area, all I could talk about was how I hoped the leaves would wait for five weeks so I could see them at their peak this year. Obviously we won’t get to see those leaves in that area at peak this year, but nobody knew what would happen just a week later. We stopped in Maggie Valley on our way out and bought the apples at the place we always get them. We went to Waynesville and got some more apples. We said we’d wait to visit our favorite farm in Bryson City until next time, so we headed home.
A lot of the state parks in my home state of South Carolina have been closed the past few days. Usually it’s always the parks along the coast that get damaged due to hurricanes, but this time it was the inland parks and the mountain parks that got shut down due to a storm. Most of them will reopen in the upcoming days, but it was unusual to see the parks listed as closed that are anywhere from 3 to 4 hours away from the coastal parks. You don’t expect that. The state parks in South Carolina hold a very special place in my heart. Once I started visiting the 47, now 48, state parks, I realized that there was another world out there that I had been missing. Something so simple changed the whole course of my life. I started sharing pictures online, then started writing blogs, which eventually turned into filming YouTube videos.
I have met some amazing people since I started traveling. We recognize a lot of the same people that work in the areas we travel to. We enjoy talking to them when we visit. I’ve had wonderful comments on my videos from people I will never meet in person, but I look forward to their comments every time I release a video. I don’t know them personally, but I enjoy the conversations. These people become part of your story.
The whole point of all of this is to not take life for granted. We are all here for only a short time, so it’s important to get out there and live. We never know when we will be living our last day. While I consider traveling living, another person considers staying at home all day living their best life. Traveling makes me happy, and I’ll never forget the people and places that I have experienced over the last 15 years of my life. Roads will be rebuilt, cities will be rebuilt, and more memories will be made.
If you’re still here, thanks for stopping in and reading my random thoughts. It’s been a few years since I’ve written anything for my website, but I’m still here. I mainly focus on my YouTube channel, but I felt like writing tonight.
travelingthesoutheast.com 