Dorothy Took a Detour

Well... Dorothy Travel's Instagram account lasted exactly one day.

Twenty-four hours after it launched, Instagram shut it down because, apparently, our very first travel post looked suspiciously like adult content.

I wish I were kidding.

Somewhere, an algorithm looked at a story about travel and thought, "This is clearly scandalous."

Five days later, an actual human reviewed the account, realized it was exactly what I said it was, and quietly restored everything.

Five days.

Now, I had a choice.

I could spend those five days clicking "Refresh," muttering at my computer, and wondering why the Wizard hadn't returned my account.

Or...

I could follow the Yellow Brick Road somewhere else.

One of the things I love about The Wizard of Oz is that Dorothy never actually takes a straight path. Every few miles, something unexpected pops up. A field of poppies. Flying monkeys. A talking lion having a confidence crisis. None of it was on the itinerary.

Travel is exactly like that.

You miss a train.

Your museum is closed.

It rains on the one day you planned to stroll through the gardens.

The charming little restaurant everyone recommended has decided that Tuesday is the perfect day to close.

You can stomp your feet...

...or you can wander down the next street and discover the tiny café you'll still be talking about ten years from now.

So that's what I did.

If Instagram wasn't available, what was?

Maybe it was time to spend more time on Facebook. Or Pinterest. Or YouTube. Maybe I should finally experiment with some ideas I'd been putting off.

Maybe I should write more.

Maybe I should record more videos.

Maybe instead of waiting for one door to reopen, I should see how many other doors I could knock on.

It's funny how quickly your perspective changes when you stop staring at the obstacle and start looking for opportunities.

I think we all do this in life.

We become convinced that this job, this relationship, this house, this city, or this plan is the only road that leads to Oz.

Then life tosses a tornado into the middle of everything.

The seasoned traveler learns something different.

There are always more roads.

Sometimes they're prettier than the one you planned to take.

Sometimes they're slower.

Sometimes they become the highlight of the entire journey.

Instagram eventually handed me back the account with what amounted to an electronic shrug.

No apology.

No explanation.

Just, "Oops... our mistake."

And that's okay.

Because Dorothy Travel was never about Instagram.

It's about curiosity.

It's about collecting stories instead of souvenirs.

It's about finding beauty in the unexpected.

And it's about remembering that if one stretch of the Yellow Brick Road gets blocked...

...there's probably an even better adventure waiting just around the next bend.

After all, Dorothy only found Oz because she was willing to keep walking.