Traveling like the amazing adventurer Kitty Hawk is easy if you have your own plane. Of course, most people aren't so lucky so here are five travel tips from Kitty Hawk herself (complete with excerpts from future Kitty Hawk books):
Tip #1: Don't be afraid of getting lost
(Excerpt from Kitty Hawk Book #6 – Currently Unfinished and Unnamed, but hint, she's in Venice)
I was thinking about something that my father had told me.
"You never really know a city until you get lost in it," he had said on one occasion when he had been feeling particularly philosophical. At the time I hadn't really understood what he meant (I think I was eight years old - not exactly a prime age for appreciating such gems of wisdom) but I must have absorbed something of it because standing there on that corner with rivers of tourists streaming by me left and right I suddenly understood.
"You never really know a city until you get lost in it," I muttered to myself and immediately set off down the street, walking briskly and determined to get lost.
Tip #2: Never be afraid of looking silly
(Excerpt from Kitty Hawk Book #5 – The Mystery of the Masterpieces)
"I look like a superhero!" I replied in amazement as I stared at myself in the full-length mirror in front of me. I was dressed in a costume that the Wasabi Willy company had provided for me–a pair of knee-high red boots with a skirt and a snug-fitting long-sleeved shirt that had a stylized crest of a hawk emblazoned on the front. And as if that wasn't superheroish enough, I was also wearing a mask and a cape and was poised ready to fight with my hair flying wildly behind me.
"Yes! That's exactly the point!" Paolo replied with a broad smile. "We've been doing some market research since your appearances at the other restaurants in Europe and we've discovered that the customers are a bit confused as to why you and the Wasabi Willy character are fighting."
"I always wondered about that too," I replied, still staring at myself in the mirror (just between you and me, I couldn't stop myself–I have to admit that I looked pretty cool as a superhero). "About what I was fighting Willy for, I mean."
Paolo shrugged his shoulders for a second. "To get at the sushis?" he suggested. "I don't know. But anyway, people thought it was confusing. They didn't know who was the good guy or the bad guy. Not to mention that the Wasabi Willy character's costume was so big that it actually frightened a lot of children."
"Anyway, long story short, we've made some changes to the concept and now you're the hero," Paolo said as he pulled the cloth cover off a nearby easel with a dramatic flourish. "Voila!"
For the next couple of hours my job was to mingle with everyone at the party, having fun taking pictures with the children and talking with their parents. The whole scene seemed completely bizarre and surreal and as we paused by the door for a moment, I found myself thinking back on everything that had happened to me over the past year–wondering how in the world it was that I now found myself standing there, about to spend my last night in Rome dressed in a superhero costume and eating sushi. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined I would ever be doing this. But then again, I never would have imagined I would have been doing any of the amazing things that I'd done during the course of my epic flight around the world. And the next morning that flight would continue, with me scheduled to be airborne and flying east to where I knew that a whole new set of surprises and adventures were already waiting for me.
I took a deep breath and looked up at Paolo for a moment. He gave me a kind smile as he continued to wait patiently.
"I'm ready," I said and he gave me a simple nod in return.
This is all part of the adventure, I told myself with a grin as Paolo led Willy and me out into the crowd of people.
And it was. Because every breath of precious life that we take during our time here on this beautiful planet–no matter how strange or exotic or ordinary–is all part of the adventure that we call our own lives.
Tip #3: Bring a book with you to read while you're waiting for stuff
(Excerpt from Kitty Hawk Book #3 – The Icelandic Intrigue)
I sat down and pulled a book from my backpack—Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not—one of the books I'd bought in Key West. I'd been keeping it in my backpack for just such an occasion as this—not a stakeout, per se, but an occasion where I could just sit outside in the fresh air and warm sun and read.
"Hemingway called this book ‘a piece of junk'," the lady behind the counter in Key West had told me. "Apparently he was not happy with it at all. And that's exactly why you should read it. You already have his best works in that pile of books you're planning to buy. You also need the ones he considered his worst to give yourself a little perspective."
I had liked the sound of that: perspective. So I'd added the book to my growing stack of Hemingway novels next to the cash register.
But as it turned out, perspective was something difficult to come by, because after a couple dozen pages of reading, I began to understand Mr. Hemingway's negative feelings about his own book. The story didn't really do anything for me, so after a while, I used the book to make it look like I was absorbed in the story rather than actually reading it.
Tip #4: Don't forget your music
(Excerpt from Kitty Hawk Book #3 – The Icelandic Intrigue)
I took my iPod out of my backpack and put my headphones in as I strolled along the walking path at the edge of the bay. I came to a sculpture facing out toward the water that looked like the skeleton of a Viking ship, and decided to sit there for a while. The sculpture was called The Sun Voyager according to a sign posted nearby.
Today feels like a Coldplay day, I decided and scrolled through my iPod to C and pressed play. As the music filled my ears, I leaned back and let myself blissfully detach from the rest of the world, thinking whatever thoughts came into my head.
Tip #5: Always remember that every new day brings new possibilities
(Excerpt from Kitty Hawk Book #4 – The Tragedy of the RMS Titanic)
Hours later, deep in the dark early hours of the next morning after everyone else was fast asleep, I stood along the cliffs overlooking the sea and took another moment to remember the victims. As I stared out across the sea I imagined Titanic steaming away from Ireland toward the west and the setting sun on her cruel collision course with fate. The next day all of us would leave this place and go back to our respective homes and fates, including me. It was time to bid farewell to my new family and friends and continue on my journey around the world. As I headed east, endlessly chasing the rising sun and that elusive place where every new day is born, I would also be on a collision course with my own fate. I had no idea what that fate might be. No one ever does. But if I'd learned one thing from my adventures in Ireland and at Newgrange, it was this: as the light of the rising sun breaks across the horizon, it has the potential to pierce deep and to bring light into all the dark and hidden places inside each one of us. Every new day brings new life and possibilities. As I turned my back to the cliffs and the sea and faced the coming dawn, I could hardly wait to see what this brand new day would bring.
About the Author: Iain Reading is passionate about Root Beer, music, and writing. He is Canadian, but currently resides in the Netherlands working for the United Nations. Iain is the author of the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series, The Wizards of Waterfire Series, and the dragon of the month club.
FOLLOW IAIN go to http://www.amazon.com/Iain-Reading/e/B00B0NGI6Q/ Readers can connect with Iain on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
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