Gypsealeah:Adventure Travel 1.0 – Adventure Girl®:Adventure Travel 2.0

Last Friday while attending the New Media Convention in Virginia Beach, I learned I was born about a decade or so too early. I’ve wallowed in this knowledge over the past few days, wondering how to find meaning in a life of adventure that happened a decade (or more) too soon….sniff, sniff.

Okay so what the heck am I talking about? I learned of a blogger by the name of Adventure Girl®. Yes, I know, I’m probably about the only person that didn’t know she exists, at least that’s what it looks like according to her twitter following. When I looked more closely at what she does I thought, “Damn!” Where was blogging and twitter when I was traveling the world?

From 1993-2006 my travels spanned 5 continents and over 40 different countries and islands. I spent time living in small villages in Turkey, learning Spanish in the mountains of Guatemala, ridding horseback to the pyramids of Egypt, hiking through small tea houses in Nepal, bungy jumping in New Zealand, hitchhiking through Lesotho, sailing around the Caribbean, diving in Zanzibar–just to name a few. And I did it all on my own, mostly by myself, and always on my own dime.

When I was traveling, the normal mode of communication was sending 100’s of post cards… not tweets. I wrote in my journals, not blogs. And I took pictures with slide film…not digital! Why oh why wasn’t tweeting and blogging around while I was traveling? I know right now you’re saying, “but from 2001-2006 this stuff was becoming popular where were you then Gypseagirl?” Until recently I had a fear of technology. I used to say just give me a butter churn and an oil lamp. From 96-2006 I didn’t even own a TV. I didn’t get a cell phone until 2001 (Still don’t text) and I didn’t buy a computer until 2003. Even then all I really used it for was email. I worked on many schooners from 2001-2006 where we naturally shunned technology and anything past the 19th century.

I’m sure that someone like Adventure Girl® continues her travels due to the viral nature of her existence. I can imagine she must have sponsors drooling over having her take their trips, stay at their B&Bs, sample their restaurants, all for the desire to be mentioned. The girl has millions of followers! Am I jealous? YES! Am I bitter…No….it just goes to show that life can be about being in the right place at the right time and social media can be a great catalyst. I guess I was world traveler 1.0 and Adventure Girl® is world traveler 2.0.

Okay, enough wallowing, this Gypsy Girl or to be more specific, GypseaLeah is going to have to pick herself up, dust herself off and figure out how to combine travel, social media and a thirst for adventure into something productive and rewarding.

For the time being I’m still learning about social media and seeing how to put it to work for the home building industry, but this recent revelation has me considering opportunities toward stepping back into my more adventurous travel life.

Perhaps I can move toward adventure travel 2.0!