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Embrace the Detour
On our list of favorite travel quotes, this one might be the best. We love it, not just in relation to traveling, but for life in general. Fighting detours seldom gets you where you want to be, regardless of the road you’re on. Most of the time, you don’t really have a choice but to take the detour. Either that, or sit still. You might as well embrace the detour.
But why stop there? Enjoy it! Make it a learning experience. Make it an adventure. Make it your own. Who knows what lies down that road? Embrace the unknown. Embrace the detour.
The Search for Kevin Charboneau
We see this quote quite often, usually attributed to Kevin Charboneau. Which is great, except… Who is Kevin Charboneau again? All we can find are references to this one particular quote, and about a half dozen people who share the same name. (For variety, some add a second “n”. We suspect they are trying to throw us off the trail!) What we don’t find is anything to confirm whether any of them actually uttered these words.
As popular as this quote is, you’d think it rolled off the tongue of a literary giant, a philosophical genius, a power-punching motivational speaker…or at least one really popular guy. Maybe it did, and we just don’t recognize him. Maybe someone credited this to the wrong person, or perhaps Kevin said this one profound thing and then disappeared, hoping to live off his reputation for great travel quotes.
We have no clue to the provenance of this bit of wisdom, but we like it. We embraced the detour. We still don’t know who Kevin Charboneau is (was?), but we got where we were going.
By the way, if you know something about the Kevin Charboneau, please let us know in the comments!
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I worked with Kevin. He is an amazing Occupational Therapist and an even better person. He’s traveled the world twice over, knows facts about every country, their national anthem, and can tell you the significance of each day of the year. He is one of my inspirations to go back to school to become an occupational therapist. He told me about this quote and I never forgot it. Before I moved to New York I asked him to make me a list of all the places I need to see before I die. I asked for 10 places. He made me a list of roughly 40. My goal is start checking these places off the list and embrace the detours along the way. I hope to bump into him on one of them.
Thanks for the note, Doug! We’re glad to see another Kevin sighting, and are awestruck by the power of the internet to connect dots. And people! 🙂 Who knows? Perhaps one day we’ll manage to meet him as well, and extend our own thanks for these words of wisdom and encouragement. 🙂
Kevin Charbonneau, (note the 2 n’s) is alive, well, supremely successful and living in Hawaii. I know this because he is my son and it is his quote that has been used quite often. He has traveled the world extensively a few times and has taught us, his parents, to embrace the detour. A good lesson!
Well hello, Mrs. Charbonneau! Thank you so much for reaching out and filling in the blanks. We wholeheartedly agree – a great lesson! We’ve followed that advice ourselves, many times, and the results have always been more than expected. Give him our thanks for the words of wisdom!