I am an expert traveler, and I enjoy it very much.  As a child, we criss crossed the country and Canada for 6 months out of the year. While THAT kind of traveling was not so enjoyable, having to sleep on the floor of our VW van and pee in a coffee can, but I saw some great, rural parts of the country.  One day there was a moose drinking from the river outside our door.  Another time my dad had to bang a pot out the window to scare off a mountain lion.  There was also that infamous time when a bear climbed onto our picnic table and we all ran into the van, except for my brother who tried to escape to get his box of Cracker Jacks that the animal was devouring. Then there was the time my father bypassed stopping in Las Vegas, to my mother’s chagrin, and the time we went to the Grand Canyon and I did not want to interrupt my nap to get out and see it.

As an adult, I have travelled singularly many times, to attend professional conferences, to go to Washington DC to review federal grants, to visit my son, Francis in California and friends in Florida. After my father passed away, ( and mom found out that they had oodles of money saved due to his stingy ways, she would take us on exotic vacations in the jungles of Costa Rica, Belize and Nicaragua and to the Mayan ruins in Guatemala. I learned to expertly facilitate these trips, with all of their planning difficulties.  My mother did not want to stay in touristy places, so we would stay in an Inn where the locals would stay, complete with a man servant to heat the bath water and light the gas lamps, leaving the bread, cheese and wine for our meal. We managed to enjoy each of our trips without any problems.

Hubby is not so experienced, which has caused him a great deal of stress as we have prepare to fly to Cancun, Mexico, for Steven’s upcoming nuptials. He insisted we get our airfare four months ago when it “would be cheapest”. Of course, this was a fallacy as the airlines frequently have great sales.  He was correct to ensure that our passports and TSA pre-check documents were in order, but a month ago he pressured me to reserve and pre-pay for a parking spot at the airport. He also had acquired a multitude of clothing for the trip, which sat neatly piled on the living room couch, along with a big, floppy sun hat, 4 different kinds of sunscreen, a first aid kit and 3 different kinds of sunburn pain killer spray.  He had purchased travel samples of toiletries, without thinking he could bring our regular ones if they were in the checked suitcase and not in a carry on which would be intercepted by TSA in the security line. He was a nervous wreck and he was very annoyed that I was calm, claiming I did not take the trip seriously.

Crazily, Hubby insisted we wake up and leave at 6 a.m. the morning of our 12:30 pm flight.  He said there might be traffic on the way so he wanted to leave early. We got to the airport at 7:30 a.m. Only 5 hours to wait until our flight. The worst part was, I asked him to stop at a drugstore so I could pick up some more Tylenol, (it was going to be a long day,) and he angrily refused, saying we didn’t have time and I “always do things at the last minute.” Hubby is never angry at me, so this burst of temper hurt my feelings and I did not ask him anything else for the rest of the day.  At the airport, Hubby was dissatisfied with the boarding pass being on my phone.  Convinced that this method was not “safe”, he insisted we get in the long line at the ticket counter to get a paper ticket, which airlines actually charge for these days. Traveling is very stressful for him, and I tried not to do anything else to annoy him lest he get back in his truck and drive home without even going.

The biggest joy of the day has been my new Air Wheels carry on luggage. This lovely device substituted as a mobility scooter for me. Pop on the power button, and a foot rest and power handlebars appear. With a twist of another button, the power handlebars rise up for easier steering. A small pillow sits on the top of the suitcase for comfort and the pull handle of the suitcase serves as a backrest when sitting on it.  What could be better?