At 23, with my education behind me and my career in front of me, I had one priority: travel. I needed to climb the Eiffel Tower, marvel at the Blue Mosque, traipse through the Uffizi. For years, I read about these places in novels and magazine articles, and they loomed large in some of my favorite movies. But to my young and melodramatic mind, I hadn’t really lived until I had seen them for myself.
I knew what I was supposed to do: find an apartment, get a job, pay off my student loans. I knew there were more practical ways to spend the money I had cobbled together through waitressing jobs and a small, much-appreciated financial gift from my grandparents.
But I was too young to be practical, and spent every last dollar (and then some) on a three-week backpacking trek through Europe. I saw everything, and relished every minute. I came back exhausted, jet-lagged, jobless, flat-broke—and blissfully content. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Nothing expands our horizons like travel, and our Escape Issue takes a closer look at destinations that fill us up, some further afield but some right here in our area. Windy Hill Farm in Tennessee takes guests deep into nature; Panama City, Florida, offers a thriving downtown scene to go with its stunning swath of the Gulf Coast; and hotels around the region that welcome our pets add an extra level of comfort to any excursion.
And talk about escaping—Greenville resident Charles Duke escaped the earth and the bonds of gravity when he traveled to the moon on Apollo 16 in 1972. As one of only 12 people who have ever stepped foot on the moon, he offers endless inspiration to his granddaughter, artist and entrepreneur Sterling Crawford. She created an online art show in his honor that includes some of her own work.
But you don’t have to travel 238,900 miles (the distance to the moon) or even across the country to expand your horizons. See the International Ballet present Swan Lake at the Peace Center; try an authentic Italian pastry at Gio’s in Fountain Inn; or take in a marvel of a water ski show at Lake Wylie courtesy of the Carolina Show Ski Team. Find the new experiences that speak to you, and you’ll have a new story to tell.
—Leigh Savage, managing editor
Do you have a favorite escape, or a person or event you’d like to see covered in TOWN? Let me know at leigh@communityjournals.com.
