Author: Eric
 About the photo: Don and Vanda Edington pose in front of the sheriffs office on the set of the A&E TV Series Longmire, set in the fictitious Absaroka County, Wyoming and filmed in the real town of Las Vegas, New Mexico. They write trip reports and submit travel photos to the Denver Post as part of the Post's Paper Trails travel feature. | I had the chance to sit down with Travel Goal Getter members Don and Vanda Edington who graciously welcomed me into their home a couple of weekends ago. Don, a retired member of the Navy Reserve and Vanda, an aspiring painter, are Travel Goal Getter Record Holders, having visited all fifty states twice. Beginning in 1998 and finishing in 2003, their first goal was to visit the state capitols. Despite tireless trip planning, speed bumps came up such as the time in Rhode Island when the state capitol was unexpectedly closed. This created a problem because their self-imposed qualification for a visit required them to set foot in the capitol building itself. Luckily, a guard patrolling the capitol corridors heard their desperate knocking and let them set foot in the building, even though a foot was all that the guard would allow. Their second visit to all fifty states from 2005 to 2009 was fueled by their newly discovered hobby of geocaching (see geocaching.org), a treasure hunting game in which you use GPS technology to hide and seek containers in thousands of locations across the world. The Edington's are contemplating a third visit to all fifty states but are still deciding on a goal. They have considered visiting the smallest cities in each state or visiting the geographic center of each state as their next goal to accomplish. |
While we certainly covered the extent of their two all fifty state trips, I was left with something greater and more powerful than the notion that travel is just about checking off places visited. For the Edington's, travel is something more; for them, it's about making connections, meeting new people, and giving back to the travel community. You could say that Don and Vanda caught the travel bug on their first overseas trip (the Edington's are also world travelers and have visited 52 countries to date). Their two-week trip to England, which happened to cost $250 at the time, placed them with a host family, much like Couch Surfing (see couchsurfing.org) connects travelers today. It's no coincidence that the Edington's utilize couch surfing and are now travel hosts themselves; in the past few years they have hosted 16 fellow travelers. The Edington's have one trip planned in the near future: an Alaskan inside passage cruise to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary.
Beyond their Alaskan trip and whatever their future travel plans may hold, you can be certain that Don and Vanda will savor their time on the road and relish in the opportunities of enjoying new travel experiences and meeting new people from around the world.
Beyond their Alaskan trip and whatever their future travel plans may hold, you can be certain that Don and Vanda will savor their time on the road and relish in the opportunities of enjoying new travel experiences and meeting new people from around the world.
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