Traveling

Everyone says 'go on vacation, you'll rest and relax'? But what if you need a week's recovery after the travel? You need a two week vacation - the first week recovering from traveling and the second week enjoying vacation and then by the time you get home you need a third week to recover from the trip home?

I now travel like a little old lady. I have a bag with wheels that has barely anything in it that my husband lugs around for me as a carry on. Everything else gets put in normal luggage and checked - and I cross my fingers it gets there when I do.

The contents of my carry on luggage include a sweater (because I get cold), a book to read (so I don't get bored and cranky), and all my medications... Which is two daily pill boxes, two extra prescription bottles for 'in case' and some lidoderm patches for 'really bad in case'.

I like traveling. I have traveled my fair share over the years. I've even done the obligatory cross country road trip staying in cheezy hotels (and trying to watch a lunar eclipse as we drove through downtown Cleveland). I have gone too many places on business trips which don't really count as travel because they could be anywhere in the world and you are just stuck going between an office, a hotel, and another restaurant between getting lost in a rental car. I can even drive on the other side of the road and navigate rotaries/roundabouts in both directions.

Now my travel plans are along the lines of:

- It has to be some place we can get to without exhausting me.
- It has to be some place that if we get there and I feel like crap, we didn't go to the other side of the world to watch CNN International Edition in a hotel room and feel like we wasted a lot of time and money.
- It has to be some place that is interesting but does not require too much exertion - I have cancelled any plans of hiking the Appalachian trail or getting to Base Camp IV on Mount Everest.

Otherwise, I like to go places. I am looking forward to the thermal springs in Iceland later this year. I want to try new foods - I went to Japan once and everyone wanted to go out for Chinese or Italian. They were disappointed I wanted to only eat Japanese food. But I will draw the line at the Icelandic dish of rotting shark meet or something. I mean I do have standards!

But traveling with a bad back/knee/hip etc has shown me that there are benefits to golf carts in airports (besides running down uncontrolled children). I have a friend who is truly handicapped who recently flew to the West Coast. She said because she is handicapped, she got a really good seat on the plane, free food, and priority boarding as well as rides in golf carts. There is something to be said about that.

I need a vacation where I can sit on the beach and watch the waves roll in - even if I don't feel very good, I'll still be enjoying myself.