A Cavalcade of Six-Word Travel Memoirs

Announcing the First Monthly Winner of Our Six-Word Travel Memoir Contest

We launched our Six Word Travel Memoir Contest last month as part of the kickoff to our 35th Anniversary Celebration, and, at the outset, we weren’t sure what kind of response to expect. We were excited to hear more of your perspective on travel and intrigued to find out where your creativity took you. And you—our dedicated Country Walkers guests and fans—delivered the goods! To date, we’ve received over 80 submissions of people’s hyper-condensed travel experiences, with more coming in every day. We’re excited to announce our first monthly winner: Deborah Matthews, a Country Walkers Encore member who has enjoyed five trips with us! Her entry was selected at random to win a $50 Gift Card to Amazon.com.

Of course, Deborah wasn’t the only entrant we were excited about this month. It seems like every day we’re struck by a particularly funny, insightful, or descriptive Six-Word Memoir. I’d like to share a few of our favorites with you.

First up are the destination-focused entries. Some travelers chose to focus on a specific, favorite country or region to highlight in their submission. For instance, Evelyn Sandground wrote about a trip to Italy: “Pasta, vino, dolce—walk it off.” Gail Warren wrote, “Sunrise, mist, 2000 ancient temples: Bagan.” We liked Nicole Graves’s succinct account of her trip to Acadia: “Sunset. Sailboat. Lighthouse stop. Lobster. Maine!” And who can resist Seth Arlow’s vivid description of North Africa: “Muezzin calls, Desert silence, Morocco magic!” or Paul Drwiega, who evokes the serenity of a forest beautifully: “Silence immense, stillness fragrant with fir.”

Equally intriguing were peoples’ inspirational entries. These posts were less concerned with the specifics of a destination and more with the experience of travel itself. Robert Schneeweiss described a hike in vivid terms: “Descended a canyon—uplifted my soul.” Barbara Frisch-Klopper’s entry has the resonance of a Zen koan: “At the top, I can hear.” We also love the cleverness of Beatrice Kerr’s punny submission, “Soles on the ground; soul uplifted.”

And then, there were those of you who couldn’t help but flatter us! We loved Susan Rearden’s brief recap of her legacy with Country Walkers: “12 Tours. Need I say More?” Our first monthly winner, Deborah Matthews, is already looking to her next trip: “Lived it. Loved it. Want more.” So do we, Deborah!