What is Wrong With Being a Tourist?

    I am posing the question What is wrong with being a Tourist?
The thing that Joe and I really enjoy about the motorcycle is to go wandering and touring out to parts unknown. We both have a wanderlust bug and we find ourselves wanting to explore every nook and cranny along the highway. He will be rolling along and suddenly the blinker goes on and off we go down some side road to see a cabin where Mark Twain once lived or an old ghost town like Bodie. A lot of times we go on trips where our destination is (what his father would have called) a tourist trap. And I have to say, I like tourist traps!

    Both of us were only children of older parents. I found that this meant that I spent a lot of time in my head and as an observer of the world around me. When I was younger, I often felt cut-off from the world beyond the borders of the small community where I grew up. My mind wandered off to places that I wanted to visit, see, touch, and experience.
    Now that I discovered the motorcycle and since I met Joe, we have started on this journey to act on the possibilities that we fantasized about when we were kids. We both want to stop at the tourist traps that were forbidden to us as were flew past when traveling with our parents. We have stopped at several of these places and have encountered really amazing experiences and really interesting people. Some are better than others but all of them have value.
    I think that we as Americans miss out on a lot as we wiz by in our rolling cages. It has become un-cool to stop at what are considered "tourist traps" even though these "tourist traps" are all part of Americana and the people that are unique and very much American. We rush to our destination and do nothing once we get there, having missed out on the juicy bits along the way.

    Since discovering the motorcycle I now understand the statement, "it is about the journey not the destination". On the motorcycle the destination is just a reason to get on and ride. The main focus always turns out to be all the stops along the way and the people you meet. Tourist traps are just an excuse for a "butt-break". At the end of the day the conversation is more about the experiences along the way than about the reason we went riding in the first place.

So again I pose the question: "What is wrong with being a tourist"?
Frankly I love being a tourist and I plan to continue experiencing this country and all the touristy stuff it has to offer. My goal is to retire, ride my Indian Chieftain and spend the rest of my days being the ultimate tourist. For my part I plan to embrace my inner tourist. Do you want to go with me?