We have all seen it on our Facebook news feeds – friends and family posting pictures of their worldly travels. For many students, classes and obligations have dwindled, and those lucky enough to find funding have taken the opportunity to explore exotic destinations.
While trips abroad are popular and enticing, they are not always feasible. But that doesn’t mean boredom has to prevail. If you want to travel this summer but can’t make it overseas, consider exploring right here at home. You can see Greek, Roman and Classical European artifacts in a castle by the seaside, visit the ruins of ancient cities, and walk across the London Bridge — all without leaving the American border.
During the summer after my freshman year, I decided to see more of the world. The first thing I had to recognize, however, was the fact that there was so much I didn’t know about my own country. A well-seasoned traveler should know his homeland as well as the rest of the world.
I took a month-long road trip and circled the country. The best part about road trips is the ability to edit the trip along the way. I told myself I wouldn’t hesitate if I heard about something along the way that sounded interesting and called for a detour. Of course, having the right company along for the ride is essential to a successful road trip. So, invite people you know who are willing to go with the flow. I grabbed my two best childhood friends and we set off in early May, without knowing much of what such a trip entailed.
Fortunately, if you’re adventurous enough, all of the necessary details fall into place. A word to the wise: Don’t overlook the current price of gas. We traveled when gas was at an all-time high, but an American road trip can be easily affordable to the average college student at current rates. Oh, and bring a tent. It saves tons of money on hotel costs.
Some of the fondest memories I possess come from unplanned adventures along the way. After taking a detour from St. Louis to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota (yes, that is a gigantic detour), my trip veered over to California. In a city on the shore called San Simeon, I found a museum with artifacts that rivaled some of the greatest European galleries. The coolest part was that it wasn’t originally intended as a museum at all. It was newspaper tycoon William Hearst’s custom-built castle home. His ancient art collection is worth the trip alone, but there’s also his reproduction Greek temple swimming complex and personal menagerie to entice the interested tourist.
On the way southeast, I heard of a city of ancient ruins in New Mexico called Chaco Canyon, an ancient civilization with an affinity for the stars. Their ancient buildings were aligned perfectly with celestial bodies, and they possessed the only simultaneous solar and lunar tracking device (a simple, extremely delicate placement of rock slabs and stone carvings) known to be in existence for the time period. You can explore the ruins first-hand, guided or unguided. I was even taken for a taste of the American western frontier experience when I got lost in the New Mexico desert for a few days trying to find the site. As it turns out, a sign with a backwards arrow can lead you on some of the wildest adventures you can imagine when in the New Mexican wilderness.
Yes, I mentioned the London Bridge as being something available to the American tourist as well. Apparently, when the London Bridge was deemed too old and worn to refurbish in the 1960s, an American businessman bought it and had it shipped to land he owned in Arizona (another reason I love America). It was reconstructed over Lake Havasu brick-for-brick, and it remains there to this day. Don’t take my word for it, though. Go check it out for yourself.
The point of sharing these is to encourage the bored Gainesville citizen or college student to take advantage of the great destinations that exist right here in our own country. Life is short and the world is large — take advantage of your free time.
Bryan Griffin is a first-year law student.
