"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories."- Ray Bradbury

I'm sure everyone has read, "If you give a mouse a cookie" by Laura Numeroff. However, if you haven't (go do it!) it's about a little mouse who is given a cookie, and afterwards, he wants other things to go with it. It spirals on from here, but the last line is him wanting another cookie, just as he did in the beginning...and so the cycle repeats. In my opinion, this is the same if you give a girl a road trip. She'll want another one, and another one, and another after that.

This summer on August 4th, Casey, Sarah and I jumped in a car and drove to Thomasville, Georgia. Being that Thomasville is only three and a half hours away from Lecanto, Fl, some could argue that it wasn't much of a road trip; on the other hand, to us it was.

We arrived pretty early, so we were still able to go explore the downtown area before the concert that they were hosting began later that evening. It was a beautiful weekend, full of great memories, great friends, great sightseeing, and, to be honest, great food (when you go, Moonspin Pizzeria followed by The Scoop for some really good ice-cream is a must). On the ride home we were already planning our next exploration which is to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

Traveling is good for the soul. I think we are so caught up in the day-to-day crazy and monotonous routine we forget to slow down and just take in God's creation around us. Gustave Flaubert says it best when he says, "Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world." So why be bound to your current tiny place? Get out of your comfort zone! Although not the best advocate for change, even I'll argue that change can be very good sometimes. Traveling forces you to embrace change. When you're somewhere new, you're in unfamiliar territory. You're almost forced to embrace the unfamiliarity of a new "culture". We were only three and a half hours away-barely in GA- and people spoke and acted very different from those we knew back home.

Traveling teaches us to relax and to free our minds. It frees us from the craziness of our daily lives, and lets us enjoy living in the moment for a little bit. Some of my best memories were made while traveling. And the best explorations are done without a concrete plan in mind. One time, Savannah and I just hit the road one day deciding we didn't know where we were going but just that we were figuring it out along the way-and we did.

As Susan Sontay says it so perfectly, "I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list." God gave us this great big world, and I think we are absolutely crazy if we don't go and explore it. Whether it be a new place an hour from your home town, or somewhere far out of the country, I think you should go explore it. I know I'm counting down the days until our next trip (about 150 to go).