Last night our house guests sat at the kitchen table trying to check themselves in for their early morning flight. Everything went fine until they got to the seat selection phase. These four travelers found exactly one seat available on the plane. One. This is crazy, of course, but overbooking isn't' exactly new. We made all kinds of jokes about who had to be back at work first, but ultimately, the only thing to do was to leave it until they arrived at the airport at five this morning.

We were sort of shocked at the amazing quantity of luggage they were carrying - we are light travelers, very willing to leave things behind - especially if they can be used by others. We unloaded quite a lot of our still perfectly usable clothing shortly before departing Cambodia - our software t-shirts were very welcome around the orphanages and schools. It's also great to trade books with fellow travelers as you tend to run short of decent reading material while wandering and travelers do all have their favorites.

These days it seems that everyone asks us where we are going next and we let them down. I'm off to a writer's conference in Florida in October, there's a chance I'll go to Chicago for work next month some time. Other than that, while I have a great desire to tour the Four Corners area - and zip off to Tucson to visit my dad, too - this fall, my ability to skip out is determined by my client load. One of my favorite clients is keeping me very busy and I am grateful, but there is no denying that I could use a vacation. Later this year there's an outside chance I'll go to Panama but I am failing to get the story I want to write picked up, having the prestige of being rejected by National Geographic Traveler and Good. Whining "But I'm an awesome writer!" at the mail box is not a good next step, FYI. 

(It's an awesome story, btw, featuring envirnomental concerns, tribal women, remote locations, and some very cool development workers that are building a profitable green business that truly benefits the locals. You want to read it. Plus, I take great pictures, it will be pretty too. And for the record, that's NOT my query letter.)

So we sit at home, photographing our surroundings on a macro level, transforming our home into a sort of youth hostel slash home for wayward friends and strangers. I talk to fellow travelers whenever I get the chance, making them meet me at our brilliant French bakery to talk blogging and travel and to eat croissants, of course.

In September, I'm on panel of women travelers at the Adventure Travel Show here in Seattle and as I'm doing so little traveling lately, I feel something of a sham. I was giddy to learn that Rick Steves speaks on "Travel as a Political Act" on that same afternoon for two reasons. One: I really support the aesthetic of Steves' travel organziation, light and local. Two: I really get quite foamy at the mouth when talking about travel as a political act and it will be a pleasure to hear someone discuss it with coherence and grace. I recently attemped to compose a post about Why Travel is Poltical for this site and failed because I was having a hard time getting past broad and pleading rhetoric. "But you HAVE to go overseas because IT WILL BLOW YOUR PROVINCIAL MIND RIGHT OPEN! PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT THAN YOU! DON'T YOU GET IT?!?!?"

Um, yeah, maybe not insulting your reader is a good place to start? Not covering them with spittle is good too, no? If you're in Seattle, you should come, I promise not to lecture you, plus, if you're there, you're already interested in travel, right?

So. Forgive me while I head off to do a little mental house cleaning. Between work and house guests and wanderlust and frustrated ambitions and oh,so many other things, there is occaissionaly a slight messy blog post. It's a little bit like showing you my desk. Which, by the way, is a pile of postcards, back up DVDs (our external hard drive died last week too), CF cards, notebooks, and oh so many other things. Consider it a map of the psyche. Travelers like maps, right?