Wanderlust! I got it bad!

Some research has shown that there is a “wanderlust gene.” DRD4-7R, a dopamine receptor that controls the amount of dopamine floating around in our brains. The neurotransmitter dopamine causes happy or excited feelings. This gene exists in about 20 percent of the human population. People with this DRD4-7R mutation have a lower sensitivity to dopamine. They seek out beefier and more adventurous activities to overcome this lower sensitivity. When compared to people without the gene, those with it tend to be less focused, desire to be more active, follow their whims more often, buck trends, and lean to the left politically.

Science aside, I love to travel. I do not need to go to exotic locales or ritzy vacation spots. For me, it’s all about the journey. Don’t get me wrong; I measure my travel the same way everyone else does — by the destinations I have reached. I often find the time spent with my wife to be the best part of the trip. Often we are more excited about the “road trip” than we are about the destination. We plan stops along the way.

In early 1991, I saw an ad that Southwest Airlines was running a deal on dirt-cheap round trip tickets from Baltimore to Chicago’s Midway Airport. I also discovered that the Shedd Aquarium was just 20 minutes from Chicago-Midway. So I went for the day. I took a 6:00 am flight to Chicago and returned on a 7:45 pm flight. By myself! This trip was only the second time I flew, the first time in a taxi, and the first trip of this magnitude I undertook by myself. But it started my love for traveling.

From 1991 until 2007, I drove and flew up and down the Atlantic seaboard countless times, took a couple of cruises to the Caribbean, and joined a vacation club that allows for a great deal of travel. In 2007 my wanderlust caused me to fulfill a dream 20 years in the making. I moved to Florida from Maryland. From early childhood through my 30s, summer vacation always meant a week at the beach. I loved these family vacations. In 2007 an opportunity presented itself to move to St. Augustine to live at the beach instead of just visiting. I would spend the next four years living and working at the beach with occasional trips. Driving to Key West in my Jeep with the top down with my future wife was a highlight. We flew to Arizona, rented a car, and drove all over the state to see if this was someplace we might want to live. I flew with my daughter across the continent to visit Disneyland and put our feet in the Pacific Ocean. Throughout this same period, there were trips to Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and numerous forays to Walt Disney World.

In 2011, after a health issue, my wife and I decided to travel and see the United States. This journey came to be known as Our Grand Adventure. Over the next four years, we lived in North Dakota, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, North Dakota again, then finally settling back in Arizona. Along the way, we took road trips to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, Meteor Crater, 14ers in Colorado, Disneyland and the Pacific Ocean, Devil’s Tower, the Painted Desert, and the Badlands. We also went off the beaten path and visited places like the Wall Drug Store, Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. Custer State Park, the north rim of the Grand Canyon, many native American ruins, the International Peace Garden, and a couple of trips into Canada. We also took our grandest trip, a two-week-long cruise highlighted by a transit of the Panama Canal.

But in November 2019, with the looming birth of our fourth grandchild, we found it sagacious to return to Florida. A few months later, COVID-19 struck the US. This virus put a severe obstacle to travel. We have discovered “safer” places to visit. Day trips and single night trips make up the bulk of current travel. Half of this travel is for medical appointments to which we add some pleasure activities. All the others are to Disney locations that offer many safeguards against the virus. While the DRD4-7R gene makes us more like to be bolder and adventurous in our travels, it does not make us stupid. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we must.

The latest effect of my DRD4-7R gene is the dream to own a cruising liveaboard sailboat that will allow for travel up and down the Atlantic coast and along the Gulf coast. I have done a lot of dreaming and much research. A quote attributed to Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” In reality, it was Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald who wrote the phrase, but you get the drift.

Pun intended!