Regarding Travel

Happy October! Supposed to be 93 in Los Angeles this Sunday when I visit my grands. Gah.

One of my friends recently had a bad time during their travels, and I can totally relate. I have never liked traveling, going way back to my childhood when I was trapped in the car with my parents every year as they took a driving vacation and argued the entire time. I couldn't wait to return home and shut myself in my room to get some peace and quiet.

Still, I looked forward to taking some trips when I was older and didn't have to go with my parents. At age 18, I flew from Illinois to Southern California with my college boyfriend over winter break. We stayed with his sister and her boyfriend, sleeping on a sofa in the living room, which was very awkward. My guy wanted to visit the major, crowded attractions, but I had no interest in Disneyland or Universal Studios; I wanted to see beaches, zoos, museums, etc. Nope. We drove back (the reason for the trip was for sister to give brother her old car), and that was even worse. The next year, we went to the Wisconsin Dells, where I almost drowned because of his idiocy. Luckily, we didn't stay together long after that.

Even so, I wasn't completely turned off from traveling yet and had some ideas about places I wanted to visit. My first husband and I didn't travel, but my second one and I did, a little, and each trip was fraught with issues, including our honeymoon, and culminated in a vacation to Hawaii when our daughters were teenagers, which was an absolute disaster. Spoiler: that was the last time I traveled with a man.

Later, I had a couple fun, short trips with my older daughter, but one major problem for me is that even when I am traveling with a nice companion to a place I want to go, there is no guarantee I won't wake up with a nasty migraine, ruining at least half a day, which is precious time on a trip. It's so expensive to travel, and the idea of one of my migraine attacks ruining a chunk of the itinerary is a real turn-off. Not only that, but airplane travel is ungodly annoying, and taking long trips by car brings its own set of problems. For a while, I thought it might be fun to travel by train after I retired and even had a list of cities to visit, but I suspect it all sounds better on paper.

Bottom line: I can't comfortably afford more than a weekend away here or there, so big trips are just out of the question. I don't want to save up/budget to go somewhere special, since the idea has little appeal in the first place. If it were a priority, say, to visit London, I would find a way to save up for it, but it's not a priority, just a... yeah, that might be nice, but who really cares? Also, for now, I don't want to leave my elderly kitty for more than one night at a time. I enjoy being home, puttering around with crafts, and binge watching TV shows with Gatsby, thus staycations are the right way for me to enjoy time off work. After I retire, who knows? 

Not that it matters, but my feelings about travel were a problem when I used to date. It seems that every profile must contain "loves to travel" and the more exotic the better. Men would nag me about my negative attitude toward gallivanting all over the planet, which was so irritating. As if there aren't a zillion fabulous things to see right here in California! I don't need to go anywhere else, pffft.