I’m a homebody. I rarely venture far outside the River Valley and rarer still outside of Arkansas.
It’s not that I don’t like to travel, I do. We did an impromptu road trip to Pennsylvania visiting friends just a few years ago. We’ve been to the “Redneck Riviera” in south Alabama a few times along with trips to New Orleans. I visited New Mexico and Washington D.C. just last year. Though, both of those trips were both work related. The New Mexico visit was work consisting of mostly trout fishing, but as the saying goes, somebody’s got to do it. International travel has been even rarer. Christine and I have travelled to Mexico a couple of times over the years.
Most of my travel is no more abroad than a few counties in one direction or another. There is so much to experience here in Arkansas and here in the River Valley, so much that I want to know about home. Then there are the sights in our nation I still need to see. And how can you be expected to see them just once? I’ve been to the Big Easy and south Louisiana three times and I’d go back every year if I could. See what I mean? What if I fall in love with a place but never see it again? There’s just not enough time. You can’t do or see it all, not to the depth I prefer anyway, so concessions are made.
But there is a place out there, across the Atlantic, that beckons to me. It’s the one international destination on my bucket list: Scotland. I found out about some strong Scottish heritage just a few years ago — I’m Johnny of the Clan Stuart. And learning of this heritage has weirdly made me homesick for Scotland.
We’ve got another creative at ABOUT that felt that pull to Great Britain for similar reasons, and Liz Chrisman has already acted on her longing. Visiting the land of her ancestors only a generation removed, Liz brings the story of her trek through Europe to the pages of ABOUT this month.
Liz traces some of her lineage back to Scotland, too. She found out from her Grandfather that they are Clan Graham. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he knew and spoke well of Clan Stuart.
It is a small world, after all.
It's a small world
