Let's explore why people, especially me, like to travel. I was born in the Midwest and raised to the age of 14 when we moved to California. From Illinois my family took many trips primarily to the East coast as a preteen. We went to New York several times, plus Boston and Washington D.C.. Each winter we would spend a week in Hot Springs, Arkansas. A vivid memory was a trip out to the National Parks in Colorado. I liked traveling except for the fact it was always me in the backseat feeling car sick. Lots of shorts trips in California is easy.
When we got married we both were in college working as apartment managers to pay the rent. Travel was visiting our parents. Then came two girls to the family and we started taking road trips with them in the back seat feeling car sick. And, other trips to the East Coast.
We made a list in those days. If we ever had the money we would go to____. After forty years of work we had enough to travel and we packed up and went. First it was Scotland renting a car and covering much of the country. We have taken road trips through seven countries. Then we had a new style. Before going it alone we began booking tours. The tour helped us get a little of the language and the "vibe" and then we drove.
Then one day I had an idea -good or bad - we would take our four grandchildren anywhere they wanted to go as a twelfth birthday gift. That was a dangerous gift. The first one took us to Paris and Normandy. The second brought us to five counties in Southern Africa on safari. Number three chose Scotland and, as her sister had been to Paris, so was she. Number four chose Tuscany and you guessed it - Paris. They gave us way more than they got.
Interspaced with their trips we took our own to Europe, just because. We traded our pensions for plane tickets. Given mobility problems we may be done, although we spent three weeks in Norway last month and I am in a wheelchair. Maybe not completely done.
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