{"id":23204,"date":"2025-03-10T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T05:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/longtime-traveler-from-cortez-wins-adventure-of-a-lifetime\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:29:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:29:39","slug":"longtime-traveler-from-cortez-wins-adventure-of-a-lifetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/longtime-traveler-from-cortez-wins-adventure-of-a-lifetime\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime traveler from Cortez wins \u2018adventure of a lifetime\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dottie
Dottie Peacock in Mongolia with an eagle during its famous eagle hunting festival. (Dottie Peacock\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Dottie Peacock was hooked on travel ever since she left home her senior year of high school to visit her eldest sister in Frankfurt, Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just fell in love with the whole experience,\u201d Peacock said. \u201cIt set the travel bug.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was nearly 60 years ago, but it may as well have been yesterday: The bug is still alive and well in Peacock to today.<\/p>\n

When she spoke with The Journal<\/em> on a sunny Thursday afternoon, she had just returned from a trip to California, and mentioned plans to soon visit New York, followed by a trip to northern Italy and Paris in spring.<\/p>\n

The subject of the interview that afternoon concerned travel, but not the kind that\u2019s planned. Instead, we talked about travel under spontaneous circumstances.<\/p>\n

Peacock recently won an all-inclusive trip to South America, a prize she had a 1 in 114,286 chance in winning, said Kelsey Knoedler Perri, the director of public relations at Road Scholar, the travel company that awarded the trip.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Road Scholar\u2019s 50th anniversary, Perri explained, so it gifted trips to seven unassuming winners across the globe, one trip per continent. A couple from Washington is headed to Antarctica.<\/p>\n

Peacock won Road Scholar\u2019s South American Odyssey trip<\/a>, which lasts 19 days, 18 nights. It\u2019s all-inclusive for two travelers, airfare and all, and stops in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Machu Picchu, to name a few highlights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a scam,\u201d said Peacock of the package she received in the mail. \u201cI didn\u2019t even do anything with it for a day or two, but I got curious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curiosity led her to Road Scholar\u2019s website<\/a>, where she found a phone number and dialed an agent.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe verified yes, it\u2019s true, and this person is waiting to hear from you,\u201d Peacock laughed. \u201cI guess I\u2019m still having a hard time believing it \u2026 it\u2019s sort of a miracle. And on top of it, I soon celebrate my 80th birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dottie
Dottie Peacock and her granddaughter Tessa posing in Paris. (Dottie Peacock\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dottie
Dottie Peacock and her granddaughter Tessa in Paris three years ago. (Dottie Peacock\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A few years ago, Peacock and her granddaughter traveled to Paris with Road Scholar, her one and only trip with the company she remembers as \u201csuperb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tessa, Peacock\u2019s granddaughter, had long wished to visit the City of Lights. Growing up, Peacock would read Ludwig Bemelmans\u2019 Madeline stories to her, which are set in Paris and \u201cold school and wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019d say, \u2018When are you taking me to Paris?\u2019 and we finally made that happen,\u201d Peacock said.<\/p>\n

As for South America, Peacock said she\u2019s still deciding on who to bring along, since it\u2019s a trip for two.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been an interesting procedure,\u201d Peacock said. \u201cIt\u2019s a three-week trip. It can be hard, even with your best friends, your favorite people, because you might not be the best roommates or travelers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A good traveler is \u201cnot too critical,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re wanting, expecting, hoping for new experience. It\u2019s not always guaranteed it\u2019ll be great or wonderful, but just sort of ready to take on whatever happens and make the best of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s leaning toward bringing along a friend and former Crow Canyon coworker, since \u201cwe\u2019ve traveled together and it works well.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, she said, that brought her to the Cortez area from Texas in 1988. At Crow Canyon, she up designed, developed and escorted trips \u2013 mostly to the American Southwest, but a few each year were international.<\/p>\n

On one Crow Canyon trip, she and a group went to Syria shortly after a Lebanese prime minister had been assassinated.<\/p>\n

When they arrived and were walking down the streets, locals would ask where they were from. They\u2019d also thank them, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for coming, thank you for meeting us and seeing who we really are,\u201d said Peacock, remembering what locals had said to them.<\/p>\n

One person said, \u201cThank you for you,\u201d which Peacock took as a thank you \u201cfor being the person you are who will come to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peacock retired from Crow Canyon 14 years ago, and has \u201chad the good fortune to have the wherewithal to keep doing some traveling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Paris is undoubtedly her favorite city, Mongolia is the greatest place she\u2019s been. She remembers it as \u201csnowy and windy,\u201d and how the nomadic people there \u201cwere always happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When thinking of traveling, Peacock said she remembers the \u201cwarmth and feeling of other people, and seeing how they live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though we have our own specialness here, she said, it\u2019s important to get out and see other things, to travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taught me so much about other cultures, other religions, other ways of operating. Of thinking, of playing, of suffering through life or joyfully skipping it,\u201d she said. \u201cMore and more Americans are traveling, but of course, as a whole, we\u2019re much more isolated. You learn so much by getting outside of your own circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peacock said she\u2019s excited for the trip in November with Road Scholar, and to revisit a few places she went 20, 30 years ago now. Though she spent a month in Chile just last year, she\u2019s never visited Argentina, Brazil or stood before the beautiful Iguazu Falls.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, she hopes to visit Australia and Scotland, to \u201cstart hitting my cultural references.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I struggle, because it\u2019s wonderful here,\u201d she said. \u201cIn earlier days when I wasn\u2019t traveling as much, I was always out hiking and scouting and looking at archaeological sites, exploring canyons. Sometimes I\u2019m like oh, do I really want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer, she\u2019s looking forward to being in Cortez and enjoying the beauty this area has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good life when you like both options,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It\u2019s sort of a miracle. And on top of it, I soon celebrate my 80th birthday,\u2019 says Dottie Peacock <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78016,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23204\/revisions\/78016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23204"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}