I was having one of those deep dreamy early morning thoughts the other day, somewhere between smacking the alarm clock snooze button to reality and wanting to steal away another ten minutes of sleep. The thought was centered around wondering what it would be like to vacation travel say four to five hundred years in the future. I’m sure it had something to do with the California budget issues melding together with an old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie I was watching the night before, Total Recall.

In the movie they had something called a virtual vacation, where they hook someone up to a contraption that tricks one's mind into seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting, and hearing the selected vacation destination and activity of your choice. That to me was a fabulous machine, all be it an unbelievable futuristic concept that was hard to swallow. However, after a little research, I found scientists today looking into all sorts of unique extraordinary things, and suddenly the futuristic contraption wasn't so far-fetched anymore. Take a minute and think about it; remember those old issues of Popular Mechanics from as far back as one can remember that touted the possibility of some weird and wild futuristic machines? Have you ever stop to reflect on the fact that many of the Popular Mechanics’ imaginative ideas and concepts from as far back as 1902 when it was first published are in use today a hundred years later.

Wait, there's more; let’s go back even further. In the 1490’s and early 1500’s Leonardo da Vinci described the possibility of a compressionless internal combustion engine, a winged flying machine, and created a working model of a machine called an Aerial Screw that actually flew. Surprise, these all eventually became the cars, airplanes, and helicopters of today. I am still amazed at what a little thing like a cell phone can now do. Forget about hundreds of years, I can’t envision what capabilities my cell phone will have in another twenty to thirty years.

So all of you who dislike Sci-Fi, don’t giggle or laugh at the outrageousness of Science Fiction writers, as they gleam material from what is being created today and tweak it to fit their writings of tomorrow. Face it, the elaborate huge RV bus of today will inevitably become the animated George Jetson flying saucer-like transport that our multi-great-grandchildren will enjoy vacations in.

Who knows in five hundred years what travel opportunities and unique destinations within the universe humans or robots will have explored or visited. Will we travel in Star Trek fashion and re-materialize, zip through space-altering wormholes, or just experience the sensations via virtual reality and never leave our living rooms? Currently in the world today there are so many vacation destinations that the average individual will never find time or have the funds to explore and experience all of them. Travel has evolved from walking, horse riding, carts, wagons, trains, cars, trailers, RV’s, and now to reserving seats on space shuttle excursions. However, in contrast, the need to get-away has remained unchanged and the child in the back seat will continue to ask, no matter how fast travel evolves, “Are we there yet?”

To assist with the exploration of today’s opportunities, Gold Country Families will be slowly expanding it's scope of destinations by incorporating travel articles from all over the United States with primary focus on the west. We look forward to sharing not only our travels with everyone, but also those of young children who have sent in essays of their vacation experiences in the new Kids Travel Stories section.

Patrick Witz

Writer/Editor/Publisher/Photographer

Gold Country Families E-Magazine

A FREE Internet Travel, Entertainment, & Leisure Magazine

editor@goldcountryfamilies.com

http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com