World Travel - Cheryl-Anne Milsap

 

 

 

          Stepping up: President Lenore Romney proudly announced that incumbent Treasurer Nancy Hanson will step up to become the club’s President-elect.  Nancy, who joined the club in 2006, will succeed Lenore when the new Rotary year begins in July.  The treasurer spot remains open.

 

          Save the date: The club’s special Christmas luncheon will be Monday, Dec. 14 at The Lincoln Center.  Some Holmes School students, faculty and administrators will be invited and members are encouraged to bring spouses and special guests.

 

          Lunch duty: Sandy Fink is coordinating the salad and sandwich choices for the club’s Nov. 9 trip to Gonzaga University’s new $60 million Hemmingson student union.  Food providers need to limit the sandwich choices to roast beef and/or turkey and one (or more) of three salads.  Please let her know your selections.

 

 

          While more-jaded world travelers may view things like Chevy Chase’s famous two-second look at the Grand Canyon in the first “Vacation” movie, Cheryl-Anne Millsap sees the sights with detail and depth.

          Millsap, who said she “has traveled the world since 2010,” formerly wrote the “Home Planet” travel column for The Spokesman-Review and still produces travel segments for Spokane Public Radio and other outlets.

 

          She shared travel stories and trends with the club Oct. 26, closing with her central message: “Travel of any kind is a life-changing experience; you do not come back the same person.”

 

          One big trend, said Millsap, “is that travel writing and where you look for information has changed a lot.”  Asking for a show of hands, her Rotary audience indicated few or no takers of the traditional travel magazines, or even the printed travel guide books.  Now the information searches mostly are “electronic connections,” like on-line sites and blogs.  And there are pervasive instant e-mails and messages sending notes and photos to families and friends from, in her case, China’s Great Wall and other venues.

 

          Millsap said she much prefers travel story-telling over providing “10-item to-do lists.”  To wit, she talked about a 25-year-old gardener who is winterizing her roses while sharing his goals.  “He wants to earn some money to travel, while I travel to earn some money,” she said.

 

          One new area of travel, she said, is Cuba, where sanctions have been lowered and opportunities are opening, including “home time” with local residents and “volun-tourism” possibilities.

 

          A major development in travel, Millsap said, involves many more single women venturing out.  “The face of the single female traveler now is not the spunky college student with a backpack, but it’s me, it’s you, independent women of a certain age,” traveling after the kids are grown and gone.

 

          “Sure it’s very challenging and demanding, but also very enriching,” Millsap said.

 

          Another trend is that “families are not spending all of their money on amusement parks and canned experiences,” but opting for more real-life adventures.  “The Disney people have figured this out,” she added.

 

          Millsap  grouped people into “six travel tribes: the cultural purists, the simplicity searchers, the social capital seekers, the reward hunters (many linked to wellness trips), the obligation masters (coming early or staying after business conferences) and the ethical travelers (where their conscience is their guide).”

 

          Another development, she said, is the wider array of spur-of-the-moment trips offering great savings.

 

          Millsap talked about a last minute “very cheap” solo trip to Iceland, which she said “is very accessible.”

 

          “It is, actually, at the end of the earth,” she said, noting Iceland’s location “in a rift valley between the North American tectonic crust and the European crust.”

 

          Having just experienced the death of a long-time, close friend, Millsap found a tranquil vista and  “said goodbye to my friend at the end of the earth.”

 

          And, she added, “in Reykjavik (the capital), I had the best hot dog I’ve ever had.”

 

          Millsap’s future project involves the 2017 centennial of World War I.  She has traveled to numerous battlefield sites in Europe, but also is studying the impact of the war on Spokane.