“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on you own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.” Dr. Seuss
Ayers/Uluru Rock in Australia Calls to Me -- Five photos stitched together by Stuart Edwards
Travels With Maggie
I was on the road yesterday, traveling from my oldest son’s home in Harker Heights to my oldest daughter’s home in Rowlett, located just outside Dallas. It was a 170-mile, three-hour drive up Texas’ Highway 35 through Temple, Waco and Waxahatchie, the three cities big enough to be marked in bold on my map.
I was accompanied by bumper-riding cars and blow-my-small-RV-off-the-road-semis. OK, I exaggerate. Most of the cars allowed a respectable distance between each other and the semis that whizzed past me only created a small crosswind that required me to keep both hands on the wheel. It could have been a monotonous drive.
Instead I kept myself entertained contemplating the suggestive post to those of us who have taken the pledge to blog daily during 2011. The WordPress moderator asked: What places would you like to visit and why?
First on my list would be Australia, and more specifically, Ayers/Uluru Rock. Located smack dab in the middle of this country that has long fascinated me, I’m not sure exactly why I want to stand beside this huge sandstone monolith that is sacred to the Aborigines. The best I can come up with is that it calls to me. And one of these days soon I intend to answer.
Great Wall of China -- Photo by Jacob Halun
Second on my list of places I want to visit would be China, where I want to walk on the Great Wall. A designated World Heritage Site, as is Uluru, the wall also calls to me. It’s the man-made equivalent of Australia’s rock island. I’ve long been fascinated with the Mongolian legacy of domination that began with Genghis Khan. The wall failed to keep the nomad hordes out of China and represents, to me, the multitude of guarded borders of today’s world that are proving to be just as ineffective.
One of these days we’re going to have to accept that we all live on the same planet and if we ever are going to have peace, we’re going to have to learn how to play nicely in the sandbox.
Mirror Lake at Yosemite National Park -- Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
The third place that sits at the top of my list of must-see places is Yosemite National Park. It’s the only western park of significance that I haven’t visited. It’s magnificent scenery calls to me, and this call I plan to answer this fall. I can’t wait to blog about it as one of my daily posts.
So what places call to you? I would really like to know.
Pat Bean's blog 
I’d love see these places. What occurs to me when I think of the Great Wall is that, when the Chinese wanted to protect their border, they at least built something graceful. I spent a couple of nights in Yosemite when I was fourteen. I came (almost) face to face with a bear. We both ran. He was just a teenager, too. Maybe I’ll get back there someday.
Have you read Bill Bryson’s book, In a Sunburned Country? He talks about driving through the outback to Uluru Rock. Australia is on my list also, but more likely where there are more birds!
I have the bryson’s book but it’s been on a back shelf in my RV. Guess I need to get it out and read it. Thanks.
Uluru is where i want to go as well. I’m an Aussie, and Uluru is the heart of our nation. It has such a lot of spiritual energy. Make sure you see the Olgas as well.
I would love to go to Yosemite as well. I’d like to see all the wild places in America. One of my work colleagues went to the USA for 6 weeks last year. When she got back I asked her if she went to any wild places. She replied “Las Vegas is pretty wild!” She didn’t go to see any wilderness, just big toy stores and Disneyland and the like.
Best Wishes for your journey.
Such a shame about your colleague. Lake Mead, Zion and Bryce national parks and many more spectacular landscapes are not far from Las Vegas. I do, however, meet up with a lot of visitors to our country who like to visit the same places as me. Here’s hoping you get to see Yosemite and I get to see Uluru. Your words describing it as the heart of Australia increases my desire to see it. Pat Bean