The Full Mountie: Becoming A Canadian Mountie For A Day (VIDEO)

Everyone's talking about "local travel." Staying in apartment rentals, making meals from local produce from farmer's markets, sticking with neighborhood parks and shops and leaving the big-time museums and chain hotels behind.

Question: what comes after that?

Full immersion. Travel to become something -- or someone -- else.

Recently I got to spend a couple days "being" a Canadian Mountie at Regina, Saskatchewan's Royal Canadian Mounted Police Depot Division, where Mounties have been made since 1885. I even got an official "Mountie regulation mustache," even if I was the only one in the troop wearing one.

What are other ways to immerse? I've pulled together a list of six ways to transform yourself through travel in the USA, including becoming a clown and becoming a falconer, but there are many more you can find in your own part of the world.

Have you ever traveled to become something else, even if just for a day?

-- Robert Reid is Lonely Planet's US Travel Editor who normally looks quite a bit less like Freddie Mercury. Speaking of rock singers, watch as Robert flies to Iceland on a jumbo jet piloted by Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson.