To anyone who reads this book, my sincere desire is that you will be inspired to arise and go forth to some of the destinations I describe. It can be a trip across a state line or across an international frontier, but go. The people, places and cultures you encounter will change you—for the better. You will return with more than a stamp on your passport. You will find that your mind and opinions have been altered—maybe subtly and in ways you cannot at first fathom—but a change has taken place nonetheless. Travel is a bracing antidote for narrow mindedness and prejudice that we all harbor. That said, travel itself can only do so much; you have to bring something to the table as well. The American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best: “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”