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EXPLORATION

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SETTING FORTH – EXPLORATION

I loved traveling — especially alone so that I didn’t have to worry about other people’s plans and schedules. Those were days when I was an early riser with a lot of energy, so I wanted to get up in the morning and be out and about.

After Garry and I got married and we worked out a few kinks in our traveling, we became great travelers. We had a good time together — everywhere we went.

I don’t think we had a really bad vacation. We had one when it rained — heavily — every day . I suppose that was as bad as it got. There was one where the accommodations were nasty, but the weather was great. I think I’d rather have crappy accommodations than bad weather. After all, how much time do you really spend in your hotel room? If the weather is good, you’re only there to sleep.

These days, though, the idea of travel makes me tired in advance. It isn’t just bad backs and the arthritis or that we don’t want to spend a day on our feet.

It’s the airlines that want to charge you for a bag of peanuts and have made the seating so tight that even short people like us are crowded. It’s the noisy airports where all we hear is white noise, static, echo, and mumbling. There are no comfortable seats and a bottle of coke can cost seven or eight dollars.

There’s no fun in flying. The security makes it so slow. The weird restrictions make it impossible to know if you can take your shampoo and hair gel or they will be seized as potential explosives. The elderly are their favorite targets for setting up extra fees for everything.

Nothing to eat while you’re flying, though I notice there’s plenty of booze aboard. No assistance during the flight. I’m too old to heave my bag into the overhead bin and I’m not putting my valuable — or my computer and cameras into cargo.

And then, there’s driving. Rutted roads, miles of traffic jams or just plain heavy traffic. Road construction. Detours. Those days when we could drive all day are gone. Three or four hours into a trip, we’re ready for a nap and a soft chair.

Not far from Phoenix …

There are places I’d love to see, cities I’ve yet to explore … but I’m afraid they will have to wait for the next round of life.

Our best traveling days  were in our forties and fifties when we were still energetic, but didn’t have a little kid to plan around. When it was just the two of us. No agenda, no plans. Just going where we felt like going whenever we were in the mood.

But if won a vast quantity of money on, say, the lottery and we could do it all first class? I might just change my mind!

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Categories: #Photography, Arizona, Travel, Vacation

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28 replies

  1. Lwbut
    04/04/2018 • 02:37

    I thought the ‘Blue’ Mountains were here in Australia?? 🙂 That looks like New Mexico maybe?

    I think the next big revolution in Travel will be a Virtual one where you see, hear and maybe even smell or feel things from the comfort of your lounge chair. I think someone is already offering a virtual tour of the Great Barrier Reef although if you want a more realistic experience you might have to have it sitting in a bath or in your spa/pool?? 😉

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  2. Fandango
    04/03/2018 • 19:42

    Yep, I used to love traveling, but these days it’s just too much trouble.

    Like

  3. omniclassic
    04/03/2018 • 15:03

    For all of the reasons you mention, I decided to drive across country last year. People kept asking what my schedule was and I replied, too many times, that I didn’t have one. WOW! what a way to go. You stop whenever you wish, eat at restaurants that don’t serve, over processed, overpriced airline food. No lines at the toilet, no planning strategy for getting around food carts in the isles.., none of the stuff we put up with just to get there sooner. Plus you actually get to see things on the ground you’d miss otherwise. The only thing I may have missed was the experience that our covered wagon travelers, of the past, had of camping out in the open at night. Not sure that one appeals to me at this stage in my life. Of course, back then there was little alternative.

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      04/03/2018 • 16:08

      Traveling alone has a lot of advantages. It’s nice to be on your own schedule and not have to always coordinate. Sleep in if you’re tired, get up early if you’re not. Drive a longer or shorter distance and there’s no one to argue with you. Get lost, get found, find stuff that wasn’t on the map.

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  4. swo8
    04/03/2018 • 13:34

    Lovely photos, Marilyn.
    Leslie

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  5. amoralegria
    04/03/2018 • 13:19

    I’m sorry you can’t travel anymore. I don’t like the tight spaces on airplanes or long lines at security, but for me it’s worth it. I know an adventure awaits me on the other side. And my husband and I, both retired, are still in good enough health to enjoy it, so we travel as much as possible!

    BTW, they do feed you on international flights – sometimes too much! On our last flight, coming home from Amsterdam, our seats were switched – my husband wanted a refund because we’d booked them in advance, but they were BETTER SEATS – business class, more leg room, a space on the side next to the window to put stuff, etc. We got lucky!

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      04/03/2018 • 16:10

      They feed you in Business and First class. In economy, you get a bag of peanuts and on a cross ocean flight, a sandwich if you are lucky. I was worth it to me when I as younger, but it’s worse now than it used to be an I have neither the body nor the patience to deal with it.

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  6. Covert Novelist
    04/03/2018 • 12:27

    You and me too, Marilyn. We’ll win the lotto and travel first class! Love that!

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  7. bwcarey
    04/03/2018 • 12:22

    I Love your Spirit Marilyn, on the days it was raining, did you not have a Guinness or two to cheer you up, thanks for the post, so right, the stress they put into travel and the restrictions, what a headache, hope you get real lucky and travel some more, blessings

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  8. angloswiss
    04/03/2018 • 11:54

    My travel dreams are also now finished. I no longer have to do my annual journey to London, and I don’t think I could. I have donated two large tubes of toothpaste to the customs officials in London, as you are only allowed small tubes. I am still working that one out.

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      04/03/2018 • 16:12

      Garry had to hand over his hair gel (hair gel???) and I had to give them my bottle of water . Still sealed, mind you, then had to BUY the same bottle for five times the price. Why do I get the feeling that there’s money involved.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Martha Kennedy
    04/03/2018 • 11:28

    I’m looking forward to a trip to Switzerland when I’m so bionic I set off ALL the security tunnels. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people