Restless

The inauguration is over. The critics have spoken and I had to grin as they dug deep with their pettiness regarding the First Family. I teased and massaged their comments and they were none the wiser. I had fun but now I'm restless. A game of "tweaking the idiots" has become a bit boring. I might need more of a challenge or a different location.

Where would I go if I could leave tomorrow? I've thought about this and ruling out a trip abroad, as more "work" is needed on convincing the husband  we need a 12 hr flight in a non smoking jet hurtling through the sky flown by a hungover pilot to arrive jet lagged and haggard, but I'm workin on it. I haven't pushed it really. I like to travel in the spring and fall and depending on where I'm going, mid summer and mid winter is out of the question. Off season gets you some travel while kids are in school and parents are bound to their homes and college kids are pursuing their degrees. 

I still have my eye on Spain and Portugal for a trip abroad. I could sign up for one of those "herded" trips but that is just not my style. I have no style. I free fall when traveling. No rooms are reserved, no tour guided trips and transportation is whatever is available although a Euro Pass is acquired before boarding a plane. I love train travel and the husband is hesitant about renting a car. Trains, subways and foot powered travel, a backpack with a couple bottles of water and a loaf of bread and we can go all day. We usually have a plan on what we are going to see that day but it's a very loose plan and occasionally just laying around in a park watching the traffic was enough.

Being "herded" by signing up with a tour that is arranged by a travel agency seems like more work then play. Up at a preset time each morning, breakfast together with your fellow travelers, load on a bus..get dropped at a tourist stop and load back on the bus for another drop in contrast to the way we do it. We meander through the streets after having a continental breakfast of breads and spreads, hopping buses or subways but mostly walking among the natives surrounded by their native tongue. Cushioned in our own world of knowing only the English language we can only imagine what the conversations going on around us are about. Occasionally we would hear an American couple in conversation, smile and nod and move on.

Occasionally we would stop for directions and after much hand waving and repetition, showing them our travel book and pointing to the pictures, we were waved down a path directed to our destination. I vowed after that trip, that I would be extra attentive to anyone visiting the USA and needing some attention. Traveling amongst the natives of the country you are visiting is the only way to go for us.  Guided tours are just too structured or at least at this stage of my life. Another 10 years and I might appreciate being driven to the front of the Acropolis or to the front gates of Vatican City but for now I prefer as much foot travel as possible.

Finding a place to sleep was an adventure as we had no room reservations in any of the cities and countries visited but we always managed to find a clean affordable room within dragging suitcase distance from the train station. I'm all about having an adventure and if you schedule your train trips you can sleep on the trains traveling between countries. 

I'm restless and I need an adventure so I proposed a trip to the husband that doesn't involve an ocean. A trip across the west to the southern most tip of California following the coast all the up the state and into Washington and crossing back across the northern part of the west. I'm homesick for the Rockies. This would be a spring trip. I don't relish fighting the snow and the cold right now.

It's time for another cup of coffee. I'll be picking Carrie up in an hour to take her the two blocks to her bus stop. I do this not because Carrie needs the ride but to spend a few minutes with her. Recently she has been spending more time at home. She has friends in the neighborhood that now visit to play the WII or jump on her trampoline. She is becoming more independant much faster then I like but then that's the way of a child. I knew we should never have let her go to school. That was her first move away from us being her center of attention. Was learning to read and write really that important?

I'm off to get dressed and get that next cup of coffee.