Travellin'. 04/11/25
/Once upon a time we called it “vacation,” which is much less haughty than “travel.” Travel is like milk. There used to be milk, but now there’s one percent, two percent, skim, as well as oat, almond and soy. I will never order a cappuccino with soy at Starbucks. It sounds like pouring salt into my coffee. Same with travel. There used to be travel. Now there’s adventure travel, resort travel, eco travel (which is really just adventure travel with a fancier name) and let’s not forget the subcategory of trips, as in golf trips, spa trips, ski trips and bicycle trips…on second thought, let’s forget about bike trips. I’ve forgotten about them since my last Vermont Bicycle Tours trip in the ‘80’s that I took to impress my then girlfriend and now wife. I’ve still got saddle sores. So that’s that about traveling. Traveling with friends is a category unto itself. Are the other couples as aerobically fit as you? Are you as aerobically fit as they are? Is one person a dyed-in-the-wool vegan? And are you a proud carnivore?
What if one of your friends is a rock-climbing, kayaking, kosher vegan with type 2 diabetes? I suggest defriending them. And then, even if you can agree on what type of trip you’re taking, can you agree on when to take it? Oh, I’ve got a (choose one) wedding, funeral, bar or bat mitzvah, confirmation, upcoming birth of a grandchild that week. I remember years ago becoming closer with another couple. It turned out we both had daughters who went to the same college and were both getting married within weeks of one another. We had the semi-awkward conversation about the weddings and telling each other that the other couple was not invited. Which is kind of like saying, “you guys are really great but you don’t crack the list of our 135 closest friends.” Well we loved that honesty and in fact are going on vacation with them at the end of this month. Walking, not hiking. Drinking wine, not electrolytes. Taking a jeep to the top of a volcano and then back down again, not rock climbing our way up and then belaying all the way down. Hell, I don’t even know what belaying means.
With all these thoughts going ‘round and ‘round, John shared that he and his friends were planning a river cruise of their own. And thus was born our four part River Cruise series.
Have a great weekend and if you’re going on a trip to climb Mt. Everest, please don’t invite us. I have nothing to wear.
Andy and John