Izzy's Traveler's Creed

Andrew Zimmerman commented about his father’s approach to travel... The traveler’s creed doesn't require crossing borders or even leaving your area code. It is a reminder that we often overlook the immense opportunities for exploration that exist right outside our own front door.  

June 3, 2026

 I travel to experience the whys of the world.

Why deserts are shaped like rivers. 

Why birds go south for the winter.

Why mountaintop trees and ocean kelp are some of the greatest homes on earth. 

I travel to see the world for what it truly is and not just what society has smudged it to be. 

 

I aspire to soak in information like a sponge, with a purpose of wringing out my water to rehydrate all that is dry or dead. This liquid knowledge painting red flashfloods in Utah, deep indigo huckleberries in Montana, and giving plaster fossils a genuine life. 

 

I will face doubt and fear, and I will fuel up with the expensive gas to drive straight into these figment obstacles.

I will follow paths paved by Petroglyphs.

I will howl at the moon with my wolves.

I will trust the soil below me and the shifts that happen at a tectonic level. 

 

I want to share my everlasting sponge both in its form as an uninspired brick or as summer's most juicy watermelon. 

I want my sponge to shapeshift and hold infinite integrity. 

 

I travel because I know my place in this world is to not stay in place. 

 

My mantra is reminiscent of ecology, culture, and a challenge to stay humble. My favorites places in the world are where you can see a landscape expressed through the culture that mingles within its unspoken boundaries.