The World By Road

The overlying goal of The World by Road is to inspire people to get out and travel and hopefully, through our photos, videos and stories, we will encourage more people to go explore more of the world that they live in. This is especially true for people living in the United States. We have said it countless times before and that is by and large, people in the United States do not leave the country that much. I have not had a chance to research the numbers more since I have been on the road, but when I looked into it while we were planning this expedition, only about 20 percent of Americans had a valid passport, and less than half actually used them. When Americans did pull out their passports, most of them were bound for the Caribbean or Western Europe. Recently, due to heightened security concerns, Americans traveling to Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas are required to have a passport. This requirement has obviously padded the current number of individuals with valid passports, but I am fairly confident that Americans are still neophytes when it comes to international travel.

We have met a fair share of Americans either preparing for, currently volunteering for, or wrapping up their service with the Peace Corps, however, in our travels through more than 50 countries over the last year and a half, we have only met a handful of “traveling” Americans, especially in the more remote stretches of Asia and Africa. An American on a 10 day vacation abroad (which we did encounter from time to time) is technically out of the country I guess, but due to the time constraints of such a trip, I would bet that they rarely get to experience much more then the inside of their hotel room or resort, a few restaurants and bars, and maybe a few tourist traps, so therefore, they will not be included in my own personal definition of a “traveler.” In contrast, you can usually count on running into a lot of “travelers” from Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, and even Israel, no matter how far off the beaten path you are.

In our encounters with traveling Americans, we have been surprised to find out that the majority of these individuals all have one thing in common… they all somehow have ties to Colorado. Most of them can say that they are from Colorado, a few of them went to school in Colorado and others have immediate family residing in the Centennial State. When we meet someone and find out that they are from the states, there is nearly a one in three chance that they have Colorado ties and that is pretty significant. Maybe it is just random chance and blind luck that we have meet so many people from Colorado traveling and even living abroad, but I think there is something more to it than just shear coincidence.

So what is it about Coloradoans that drives them to travel, potentially more so than residents from other states proportionally? Based upon no other study or survey other than my own observations, I believe people from Colorado are far more active and adventurous than other Americans. Even in this day and age, Colorado still has a wild west feel and in keeping with that, Coloradoans like spending a lot of their free time enjoying their natural surroundings. Thanks to the outstanding weather in Colorado, people can enjoy a wide variety of outdoor activities all year round. The high activity level of Colorado residents is reflected in that it is one of the “lightest” states in the nation in terms of the number of obese people living there. Just like an adrenaline junky looking for a higher bridge to base jump off of, this longing for outdoor activity and adventure may lead people living in Colorado to seek out adventure and activity beyond what Colorado has to offer. However, although Coloradoans may be drawn away from the state at times, as a result of it’s natural beauty, we have never met a Coloradoan traveling abroad that either did not miss Colorado or was not planning on returning to Colorado at some point for that very reason.

Maybe our encounters are reflected by the possibility that Coloradoans are far more curious than residents from other states. Colorado can lay claim to being one of the most educated states in the country, having one the highest percentages of residents with a university degree (nearly one in four), so maybe it is a quest for additional knowledge that drives people from Colorado to travel internationally in an effort experience different cultures, meet interesting people and visit new places. Who knows, these are all theories that I have been mulling over for quite some time now. Maybe it is because most people in Colorado live at an elevation of over 5,000 feet and somehow living at such an altitude has affected our brains differently and pushed us to travel more. Whatever the explanation may be, on the international scene, Colorado definitely represents.

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