It’s springtime here in Central Texas, and this is what I see if I drive over to Brenham in Washington County — you know, the place where they make Blue Bell ice cream.

“The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.” e. e. cummings

If you’re in the Austin area, visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for more insights into the wealth of Texas-native wildflowers and plants.

Two articles caught my eye this week.

The Guardian wrote about The Art of Not Planning, focusing on the joys of spontaneous travel. It’s a collection of suggestions, complete with personal examples, of how to indulge in spontaneous travel.

Their suggestions include: stop organizing, let the city (not the book) be your guide, put your trust in others, don’t book (wing it), and slow down. Sounds like a great way to travel but few people actually travel so freely.

Part of the reason we don’t is because we get so much pleasure from the travel planning or what Australian writer Kim Wildman calls The Anticipation of Travel. We like to research, read guidebooks, look at maps, make plans, and create detailed itineraries. It’s fun. It’s exhilierating. And it allows us to start travelling even before we leave the house.

When I went to Spain last year, the planning started a good six months before I left home. I read every book I could find on Spain (especially Madrid). I read about the geology, the geography, the history, the culture, the food, and the language. I didn’t want to miss anything. I guess you could say I immersed myself in all things Spain.

I created itineraries that planned my time in Madrid day by day and hour by hour. Nothing was left to chance. I knew which museum and art gallery opened when. I knew how long it would take by foot, bus, and train to get from the Palacio Real to the Parque del Buen Retiro Gardens.

But when I got on the plane, my detailed itineraries were not with me. I left them on the kitchen bench. Deliberately. I had done my planning. I knew what there was to see. But I didn’t want the itinerary to control me.

If I had, I would have missed out of doing ‘figure of eights’ around the Plaza Mayor on a Segway. I would have missed the gypsy street performers in the smaller plazas I found by chance. And I would never have caught the train to Segovia and discovered the Ancient Museum of Witchcraft (bizarre but intriguing).

So if you want to put some spontaneity into your planned travel, try these ideas…

* do make a itinerary but don’t treat it like it was carved in stone.

* carry a map but leave it in your bag. It’s there to get you back to your accommodation at the end of the day, not to guide you through the day.

* do pack the guidebook - not to plan where you are going but to see where you have been at the end of the day.

 * stay open to opportunities and the unexpected.

 * spend time just sitting (in a cafe, a plaza, a train station) and watching the world go by. Travel, after all, is not just about seeing everything. It’s about immersing yourself in the atmosphere of a place.

So what’s your travel style - planned, spontaneous, or maybe a little of both?

Google ‘travel blog’ and you’ll find that there are over 61 million to choose from. Seems everyone wants to write about travel. But most travel blogs, written by people wanting to share stories of their travels, are maintained only for the extent of the journey and then left to float around cyberspace.

But there are also a growing number of travel blogs written by established travel writers who already write for magazines, newspapers, and guidebooks.

Curious to find out why professional writers who already have a paid market for their work would also spend hours creating and maintaining travel blogs, I decided to put the following questions - ‘Why do you think travel writers blog?’ and ‘What made you state a travel blog?’ - to a few travel writers.

Sun Sentinel Travel Columnist Tom Swick, who recently started the travel blog Tom Swick:Travels thinks that “…travel writers are blogging for the same reasons other people are: to be heard, to share stories and information, to be part of the global conversation.”  He feels that “…travel writers are particularly receptive to it because it’s an electronic version of what we’ve been doing for centuries on the road, in hostels, in cafes, etc.”

Tom was encouraged to start a travel blog by the Sun Sentinel newspaper and has taken to it like a fish to water, loving it’s instantaneousness. “An idea will occur to me, or an e-mail appear in my inbox, and within minutes I can have it on my blog. It’s also a wonderful place for miscellany - miscellany is SO underrated - which just doesn’t work in a newspaper column.”

(Reason # 1: Writing a travel blog allows freedom of expression and ideas not always suited to newspaper and magazine writing)

Leif Pettersen of Killing Batteries is very clear as to why he blogs. He wants a place to promote his work and also write fun, goofball stuff - stuff that probably wouldn’t see light of day anywhere else. But he also sees blogging as the equivalent of an electronic journal…

“I started travel blogging as a public way to keep a travel journal that I can refer to when I’m 100. When I backpacked in the early 90’s, I didn’t keep a journal and I was stunned at how much detail I forgot even six months after the trip ended. Things like hostel names, food, museums, people…All gone. So I started writing paper journals in the mid-90s and finally online when I started my stint of homeless travel writing. I made it public to, again, self-promote a bit as I was trying to build a name, but also for friends and family to stay updated on my doings. And now almost five years on from when I started, having that absurdly detailed ream of notes is priceless as a reference.”

(Reason # 2: A travel blog provides a storage facility for travel notes)

Australian writer Kim Wildman thinks that most travel writers blog simply to share their passion and experiences with others. Guidebook publishers are generally more interested in “getting the facts - where’ s the best place to try local cuisine? what’s the newest and hottest night spot? What bus do you need to get from city A to city B?” leaving little room for “the fascinating experiences you have, the interesting people you meet or the amazing things you see.”

Kim sees her blog Wild About Travel+Writing as a creative outlet for her writing, a place where she can “…share all the millions of wonderous experiences [she] has as a travel writer.” The Travel Writing life can be lonely with little feedback from readers. Blogging, Kim feels, provides the chance to open up and maintain a dialogue with her readers, therefore making it a very cathartic experience.

(Reason # 3: Writing a travel blog connects you with your readers)

Meanwhile, Joshua Berman sees himself more as a ‘blogging traveler’ and ‘Central America–watcher’ rather than a ‘blogging travel writer.’ His blog The Tranquilo Traveler, which Berman describes as “a celebration of voluntourism, slow travel, and other interesting ways to see the world,” offers up a cornucopia of themes and topics, particularly about Belize and Nicaragua, countries he covers for the Moon Handbook series. Berman says, “When I’m on the road, I blog to share images and scenes of where I am. When I’m home (in Colorado), I blog to share the fascinating travel tidbits that show up in my inbox every day. I have a special interest in volunteering abroad, community-based travel efforts, and stand-out new travel books.“ He adds, “having a blog also helps readers and editors find me.”

(Reason # 4: Writing a travel blog is like creating a travel library)

Tim Leffel writes two blogs - Cheapest Destinations and Practical Travel Gear. The first blog, he says, was started was a way to promote his book The World’s Cheapest Destinations. But he soon realised “….it was reaching far more people than the ones who would buy my book, so I starting using it to cover rants, raves, and things that didn’t make it into any of my books or articles. It’s more personal and immediate, with no editor in the way.” The Practical Travel Gear blog evolved because Tim wanted to “review items that real travelers use, especially those who are on the road for longer than just a week — and do it based on real use instead of a press release.” Writing the blog provided Tim with access to products he might not normally have got.

(Reason # 5: Writing a travel blog provides exposure and some financial rewards)

Conclusion: Turns out travel writers are just like everyone else - they blog ’cause they have something to say about travel that they can’t say anywhere else…

So why do you blog???

A recent piece about Moscow’s ritzy Ritz Carlton hotel in Intelligent Travel went a long way to showing that not all of Russia is vacuously obsessed with consuming as much glitz as possible. The general manager showed his intelligence by extolling the virtues of getting out of the city, and one of the places he mentioned is my favorite little Russian village, Suzdal.

I’ve written before about Suzdal (not here), but the place is worth mentioning. It’s part of Russia’s 300-kilometer-long Golden Ring of villages, but is by far the most picturesque. It takes about two hours to walk around, without touring the 30-odd monasteries and churches, and throughout the entire walk you could kid yourself that the Soviet Union had never existed.

Although most tourist guides describe the place in summer, I went in the dead of winter. Even then, in true Russian style, the market vendors were out hawking carved wooden boxes in -10 degrees Farenheit (-23 Centigrade).

Suzdal is full of tiny, brightly colored houses, and windows with curlicued frames. Given the blockiness of most drab, concrete Soviet architecture, you might not guess the Russians are this whimsical, but this is the traditional architecture of Russia — the classic dacha, overheated by one wooden stove and bravely painted against the harsh weather.

I recommend seeing the Russian countryside in winter. The bleak landscape wipes your mind clean, and a village like Suzdal leaves plenty of room for contemplation. Either way, if you can brave the train journey and jostling bus ride out of Moscow, take a trip out to the Golden Ring on your own. Walk around. See something new.

(All photos copyright 2005 Antonia Malchik)

After thinking about travel down a canopy road in Florida (featuring Bradley’s Country Store) I now have small-town general stores on the brain.

In pretty Valle Crucis — near North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway — stands the Mast General Store, ready to sell boots and buttons since 1883.

A smaller, more Southern version of New England retail stalwart LL Bean, it advertises “cradles to caskets” because “if you can’t buy it here, you don’t need it.”

The original Valle Crucis store is on the National Register of Historic Places, and it’s well worth a stop to poke around in the old-fashioned mercantile section (cast-iron cookware, stone ground meal, bag balm salves, kids’ slingshots) or the traditional clothing (flannels and boxers, straw hats, rubber waders or bright red union suits complete with button flaps.)

Mast General Store is now a small chain of shops in North Carolina, with one each in Greenville SC and Knoxville TN, but the original one features the circa 1909 Annex just down the road.

The building used to house a competing store, but now it’s a sports and casual clothing outfitter.

The key thing about the Annex is that it has the Mast Store Candy Barrel, full of pecan divinity, horehound rootbeer barrels, Maple Nut Goodies, Bit-O-Honey and all the other candy favorites.

Yum.

The photo at the top of the post is the checkers table, ready to go with the requisite bottlecap checkers.

Linger awhile and play, maybe with an ice-cold RC Cola and Moon Pie in hand.

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• Carolina BBQ will fix what ails you
• The Blue Ridge Arts Scene
• Carolina….nothing finer