Many of us "travel", but how many of us consider
day and weekend trips to nearby locations as traveling? Until a couple months ago, I only considered
it traveling when I would spend a few days to several weeks away from
home. Is that how you feel?
Even going to a friend's house for the weekend, I
thought it wasn't "really traveling".
But as a blogger, I did journal these trips, writing about them vaguely under
the category of "Road Trip".
Then I looked around my local area, the "Tampa
Bay Area of Florida". The area is
made up of various sized cities, towns, municipalities, and areas designated as
counties.
Over the last three weeks I've posted blogs about a
small town sidewalk chalk art festival (Safety
Harbor, FL - Bloom and Chalk Art Festival) and a medium sized city
hosting a Guinness World Record attempt for the number of food trucks (Tampa
Food Truck Rally - Florida State Fairgrounds; Tampa, FL). And weekend before last I blogged about a ten
day event that was all about the Florida sand (Sugar
Sand Festival - Clearwater, FL).
Finally, last weekend I went to the Brooksville Blueberry Festival but
elected not to blog about it (but I will share some pix on this post).
In that
one-month period, I found numerous activities within the Tampa Bay Area. While I only attended one per week, there
were at least six events every week; some of them lasting three or more days. Of those that I attended, the farthest in
drive time was an hour away.
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| Food trucks draw a crowd |
I'll be the
first to admit, while my local area has a lot to do, I rarely took the time to explore
my own backyard. That has since changed.
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| The Sugar Sand Festival was held at Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach |
Now, when
I'm not traveling I spend a couple days per week surfing the internet to find
out what is happening in my area. It
doesn't take that long to find events, it just takes me that long to figure out
which one or ones I want to attend. When
the chalk art and sugar sand festivals were in town it was easy pickings. I missed them last year and made it a point
to attend them the first chance I got.
My
suggestion to you is even if you don't have time, can't afford it, or simply
don't want to spend time away from home you can still "travel"; but
sleep at home. Off all the festivals I
mentioned about, I paid an entrance fee for two of them, the Sugar Sand and
Brooksville Blueberry festivals; and both combined didn't cost me $10.
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| For me the highlight of the blueberry festival; the car show |
In the future,
I will start traveling on weekend trips in the state of Florida. I'll share those journeys with you and
solicit you to send me your stories about your travels.
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