Debtors Prison

Uhh

I thought this was a travel blog?

I think people that are NOT travelers only think about the Vacation their are on. I live traveling, I am in the USA spending 10 days on the way to Guatemala on Sunday. Therefore, what I look at in the USA if interesting. Maybe you can say I am observing the new poverty of the USA, or do I just need to be cliche and observe the poverty of India to call it travel.

I travel and I observer, which truly involves anything on the planet.

Abraham Lincoln went bankrupt.

His face may now appear on the penny, but at one time, Lincoln didn't have a single cent to spare. Lincoln tried many occupations as a young man, including buying a general store in New Salem, Illinois, in 1832.

While he may have been terrific at splitting rails, winning debates, and wearing stovepipe hats, Honest Abe wasn't much of a shopkeeper. Lincoln and his partner started buying out other stores' inventories on credit, but their own sales were dismal.

As the store's debts mounted, Lincoln sold his share, but when his partner died, the future President became liable for $1,000 in back payments. Lincoln didn't have modern bankruptcy laws to protect him, so when his creditors took him to court, he lost his two remaining assets: a horse and some surveying gear. That wasn't enough to foot his bill, though, and Lincoln continued paying off his debts until well into the 1840s.

Then he freed the slaves and the country went to hell :)

Re Travel Blog?

Here we go with the "Real Traveler" stuff again.

First off I think a traveler is a traveler and they all have the right to travel the way they wish. Some people stay in 5 star hotels, hire expensive multi-lingual guides, and leave after a week. They probably know more about the people and place than 99% of backpackers: most of whom, from my observation, spend the bulk of their time sitting around guest houses with other backpackers; drinking beer, watching movies in english, and playing computer games.

What I think is really sad is that so many people can travel a lot and never come to think, after all their experiences, with so many people, in so many places, that the world is made up of lots of different people, with lots of different ideas, and lots of different circumstances and lots and lots of different reasons for doing what they do. There is no "real" there just is.

As for your definition of "real traveler" I, like you, live on the road--full time. My home is where I happen to be, and I always feel like I'm leaving home when I move on. Right now I'm in a nice Thai neighborhood of Bangkok for a few months--sure as heck not near Khao San Road.

Just my opinion, we're all entitled to one.