Welcome to Emily Mae Travels

 Hello World!

My name is Emily Mae and I'm a Virginia based wannabe adventurer.

I can't express how excited I am to be starting this blog. This isn't my first foray into the blogging world, I actually ran a pretty successful blog in my teen years. But my passions and interests have changed, so I'm creating this space to share my travel adventures.

I think everyone had different ways of coping with Covid and the aftermath of Covid. Before the pandemic hit, I was a very active, outdoorsy person. There was no amount of hours I wouldn't drive for a good sunset, I was hiking every weekend, I thrived off being outdoors. And then Covid hit, and I was quarantined for over a year. Even once I got the vaccine and was able to move more safely through the world, it was very hard for me to get back out there. I had been stationary for over a year, my fitness was dismal and my muscles were atrophied (or felt like it). Suddenly I couldn't handle extreme heat and didn't feel like driving to the mountains for a sunset. I was almost intimidated by nature. And then I would get mad at myself because I used to be so driven and energetic and I now I was just so drained. And it was vicious circle of laziness and self-deprecation and misery. I felt like I'd lost myself, because so much of my personality and life had been nature. It was how I built relationships. It was how I expelled my energy. It was how I cleared my head. It was how I rejuvenated myself. And it was very hard to lose that part of myself. Or feel like I had.

So recently, I've decided I need to get back out there. And I'm hoping this blog will motivate me to keep with that commitment. I need to get back to who I was, I need to rebuild myself after the struggles of Covid. And I hope you'll follow along with me.

My first goal is to finish visiting all 41 of the Virginia State Parks. I've visited 30 so far, so I'm almost there! I intend to create posts about each state park and provide detailed information and insider tips and tricks. When I get back to international travel, I intend to document my pre-trip planning and summary of the trips. I will see what else I expand into as I continue to grow and develop. I'm really excited for this new chapter.

I hope you'll come along with me on this journey! 

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