News and Updates. September ‘22 Recap
Editor’s Note: Since publication of this story, the REACH Library is not longer a membership service. Links in the copy below have been updated.
It’s been a busy month and so it seems to be the time to update you all on the latest happenings. The biggest news is that we’ve embarked on the next leg of the Vagabond Adventure. This time we’re heading (at last) to South America and Antarctica, just as we had originally intended almost exactly one year ago. Recall that COVID shuttered our plans to head south and so we re-routed to explore North America. Now we’re finally back on track. Of course we immediately encountered another diversion: Hurricane Ian. But that’s another story.
Real Time Updates Are Here
We’ve also found a way to do something we haven’t been able to do until now: provide updates of our trip in real time. Since we began the Vagabond Adventure, I’ve been writing and you’ve been reading Dispatches and posts on social media about what we’ve been up to. But between traveling and the time needed to post or write each Dispatch, it’s been impossible for me to fill you in on what we have been doing as we do it.
For example, I recently published the tale of our visit to Motorcycle Heaven in Dispatch XVII. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to read about Cowpokes, Roughriders and Teddy Roosevelt in Dispatch XVIII. I have only just written these missives even though we have actually travelled nearly 10,000 miles beyond those locations. Our journey through the American West will continue, and plenty more Dispatches will follow about our pilgrimages to the tip of Baja, Mexico; up the west coast of the United States into Canada; across the Atlantic by ship and then into parts of Western Europe and Northern Morocco. The point of these is to do more than just show you where we have been. I want you to see what the experience was like, face to face, one day at a time. I think you’ll be surprised by what you find.
Joining Polar Steps
The beauty of Polar Steps is that it allows us to post information about our journey in real time because it automatically tracks where we are anywhere in the world, right now, usually with pictures and a bit of commentary. It’s all visual and global and you can expand the journey to look at as much detail as you’d like.
It’s easy to join Polar Steps on your web browser or by downloading it on your phone (we suggest doing both). It takes about 15 seconds, and it’s free, no strings attached. Polar Steps will even show you ALL of the previous locations we have visited, and exactly when we were there.
The Vagabond Adventure on Polar Steps
Closeup on Polar Steps with Location Details
So now you have several ways you can experience the Vagabond Adventure:
(1) Polar Steps for a quick up-to-date way to see where we are today, as well as where in the world we have been in the past.
(2) Or for great stories, history, fun, music and beautiful photos, my Vagabond Dispatches (I’m publishing them as fast as I can) for more meat and depth than Polar Steps - a great place for satisfying your curiosity and discovering the unexpected.
(3) Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter) to keep in touch with all facets of our misadventures. Connect with any and all of these here.
(4) And finally, our REACH library, our members only premium content area (don’t worry, it’s free, too). We’re constantly adding articles and first rate contributors. Today, you can get a special discount in the Vagabond Adventure Store. All you have to do is log in (or join up - it’s free and easy) You’ll find the discount code on the REACH home page. Simply type the code at checkout.
You may as well take a breath from the mayhem. Why not gain some perspective. Enjoy a good laugh, or a great adventure, and explore your mind, the past, the future and the planet all in one place. That’s the place we’re working to create.
Of course don’t forget our store and, down the road, our expanded photo and video gallery.
In the meantime, crack on!
All the best,
Chip.
More below…
September Recap - select stories from REACH
It’s time to take a look back at what we’ve been up to. Here’s the latest…
On any given summer day in America, fans honor a strange game involving an orb stitched together with 216 hand-sewn loops of bright red cotton thread. Explore this little piece of Americana.
A story of remarkable courage, and let’s face it, a heavy dose of blind luck. You won’t believe it…
They crashed in the Sahara desert without food, water, a radio or anything but their wit and stamina to save them. The last night they began to freeze in the night wind, unable to move enough blood through their coagulating blood streams to summon up warmth. In the cold their throats closed, their saliva retreated, their tongues turned to cloth and they waited for death. But it did not come … This is rates as one of the great adventures ever.
Select From the Vagabond Adventure Store
Thanks to the creative and enterprising people we meet along the way, we are sometimes able to stock the store with a few exciting finds. We just have a couple of items left from Benito, a fine craftsman I met in Santillano, Spain. Don’t forget to join REACH to get your member discount throughout the store (no obligation if you sign up).
Stay tuned by way of Polar Steps, Vagabond Adventure Dispatches and REACH as we continue to get into more trouble.
National Geographic rated this the greatest travel-adventure book ever written. It’s the dramatic story of Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition between 1911 and 1913 to become the first humans to reach the South Pole. This is the original version, written in 1922 by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who survived and witnessed the journey. Filled with remarkable original drawings, maps and photos with a fresh preface that explains why this book is so compelling and important, it is a riveting story of courage and danger; a true, rare classic.