Mental Travel

Since I can't travel right now in the physical world, I do my traveling mentally, remembering places I've been and imagining places I would go.  One place that I remember well, and which I go to mentally - sometimes when I am meditating, is Steptoe Butte in eastern Washington.  It's a large hill about an hour to an hour and a half south of Spokane, where I used to live.  It is surrounded by lush, rolling farmland on rich soil that was left by scouring ice sheets thousands of years ago, and it provides a beautiful 360 degree view in a setting with changing sunlight and breezes.  I used to go there and just sit for a couple hours, gazing into the distance and enjoying the peace.  These images are not mine; I found them on the Internet.  The wind turbines seen in the second image were not there when I went to the butte in the 1990s.


So where do you go in your mental travels these days?

That's magnificent, John. Is that area considered part of the Palouse? What's the closest town? Pullman? Walla Walla?

That's magnificent, John. Is that area considered part of the Palouse? What's the closest town? Pullman? Walla Walla?

Yes, it's in the Palouse. It's just a few miles from Colfax, which is northwest of Pullman.

Mental travel can take me back to Scotland as well as my native Brooklyn.  These were taken in 2003 when I visited both.

Queen's View, Loch Tummel, Scotland


The Brooklyn Bridge, looking towards Brooklyn from Manhattan

Shades of Philip Dick, eh? “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”

Another thing you can do is to use Google Earth to view places you have never been before.

1. You can travel to Afghanistan without worrying about getting shot.
2. You can travel to Antarctica without putting on a jacket.
3. You can climb to the top of Mt Everest without needing an oxygen tank.
4. You can explore the Sahara Desert or the Outback of Australia without carrying water.
5. You can visit the Amazon Rainforest without needing insect repellent.

Beautiful images can lead your mind anywhere you choose.  RayClem 's comments made me think of a father to son talk I had with my son over 20 years ago.  He was learning to read but had become frustrated - reading is a big deal in our house and my wife and I read bedtime stories to the kids every night for many years.  When my son told me he didn't need me to read him bedtime stories anymore it was hard on me because I enjoyed the time so much.  He was 11.  Anyway, I sat beside my frustrated almost reader son and spoke to him about the joys and the wonders of reading.  How books can take you on adventures, into the past or the future, to the bottom of the ocean or into outer space.  You can learn so much and find so much enjoyment.  He listened to me, seemed thoughtful and within a few days had made the breakthrough.  Images stimulate the mind in much the same way.  Thank you

"Speeding through the universe, thinking is the best way to travel.", the Moody Blues.

Mental travel can take me back to Scotland

A good single malt does that for me.

Another thing you can do is to use Google Earth to view places you have never been before.

1. You can travel to Afghanistan without worrying about getting shot.
2. You can travel to Antarctica without putting on a jacket.
3. You can climb to the top of Mt Everest without needing an oxygen tank.
4. You can explore the Sahara Desert or the Outback of Australia without carrying water.
5. You can visit the Amazon Rainforest without needing insect repellent.

Yup. I can spend hours cruising some areas in South Korea and Japan with Google Maps Street View  .

• I found some narrow street intersections in Seoul with amazing colourful tile patterns in the pavement. One back street led me to a restaurant that you could enter and check out the different rooms.
  
• Circling the evacuated area in the vicinity of the Fukushima reactors. 
  
• You can "hike" up and around Mount Fuji.
  
• Back alleys in fishing and farming villages - what do people have in their yards?
  
• the Akihabara district storefronts  in Tokyo
  

There are also a lot of Youtube videos recorded through the front windshield of trains, in real time. Some are hours long. 
A few are supposedly "Live" views, but they are merely live streams of pre-recorded video, which eventually repeats.
See https://www.youtube.com/results?search_q...ride+train 
It's a great way to see more than just the tourist highlights of a country.

A lot of museums have Street View routes inside them.