Just about a month ago, I had a revelation as to where my desire for travel came from. It all started with my Mattel Barbie camper, just like the one in the photo.  It was pretty beaten up too because I played with it all the time. Just looking at that photo brings back so many memories. It was one of the few things I wish that I had saved from my childhood.  This was one of the other things I wanted to keep:

Oh Baby Beans, how much I loved you, but I digress.

If you’re around my age and loved Barbies, you probably had this camper too.  When I posted this on Facebook, so many of my friends responded, excited to see the camper again. I think we need a Facebook Barbie Camper Group.

I would spend hours setting up the camper and hours daydreaming of where I would drive the one I would get as an adult. I don’t have one yet, because life often takes us in another direction. Soon though, I hope.

When I would play with the Barbie camper, I wasn’t pretending what Barbie and Ken would be doing. I was actually daydreaming that it was my camper and I was setting it up for me. As I said, I realized recently that this is where my desire for travel and the desire for wanting to live in an RV and travel the world started.

That desire to travel the country in an RV hasn’t left me.

This memory brought back another one. When I was in fifth grade, I remember we had some project to do on what we wanted to be. I talked about being a writer and traveling the world. In our class, we had several special needs children. I was a tutor for them and often walked them from class to class. One student, Greg, was an absolute sweetie pie and I found out from his mother that he had a crush on me. When Greg found out that I wanted to travel, he surprised me with a Delta Airlines Wing pin that he got on a trip back from China with his mom. It looked like this:

I still have it.  It was such a special moment for me when he gave it to me. It reminds me of my dreams and even though life took me in another direction, I’m back to doing what I always dreamed of doing.

Throughout the years after that, it would be television and films that would continue to fuel my desire for travel. I’ve talked about how my love of Under the Tuscan Sun put Tuscany at the top of the list for me. The Amazing Race has opened my eyes to many locations that I didn’t necessarily have on my list to see. For example, they recently brought the contestants through Thailand. I had heard beautiful things about Thailand but really didn’t think much of it. That one episode changed my mind – it looks beautiful. This Virgin Traveler has added Thailand to her list. Here’s one reason why:

My goodness. How beautiful is that? I’ll get there.

So my favorite author from my childhood, Judy Blume, now teaches writing — I always wanted her as my English teacher — and one of my absolutely favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time, is now going to be a movie. All I need is for this Barbie camper to become real so I can make my childhood come alive again. The little girl in me is giddy.

What triggered your desire to travel the world? Was it a book? Was it a movie? A photo? Please share your stories with me.