Travelling Guru

A friend of mine is on vacation in California. It's a dream vacation. Fly in to San Francisco, sight see for a few days. Rent a car and take a couple of days driving south on the famous Highway 101. What it must be like to be able to go on a vacation.

Photo is courtesy of Charles Green.

It's been years since I went on a real vacation. I think about 10 years to be exact. The ex and I went camping, tent camping at that, in Arkansas--in the mountains, in October. Not really MY idea of a vacation, but it was a vacation nevertheless. I got to cook outdoors, clean up outdoors and freeze my tail off, outdoors.

I have always wanted to travel. Before I got married, I wanted to go with a group of relatives to Jamaica, couldn't afford it. During my marriage, I wanted to drive to Las Vegas. Not that Vegas is really a place I am dying to see, but the drive--you know getting there is half the fun. Obviously, money was a huge factor and a trip like that wasn't affordable. Later in the marriage, the ex didn't want to go anywhere, he didn't even like going out with my parents to dinner.

This year, be it 2/3 of the way over, has been about the new me. I have made resolutions not to repeat mistakes of the past. Here I am, a 37 year old woman with no husband and no kids. Why shouldn't I travel? Ok, money is still an issue, but I am working on it. I want to go places, experience new things. I want to see San Francisco, that has always been one of my desires. I also want to explore Seattle, parts of Oregon, the Redwood Forest, British Columbia, New Mexico and--at least once in my life--I want to see Bora Bora.

I've devised a system for funding my travels. Once a week, I am going to "borrow" five dollars, no I mean ten dollars from various people I know. Now, just to be straightforward with you, I never intend to pay you back. I also want to hit up others for "gas" money, about $40 or $50 should take care of that. I will also sell items that may or may not belong to me--after all, can we really own anything? Maybe by the time my birthday rolls around in November I should have enough money to take a trip to Fort Worth. I know what you all are thinking. Yes I live in Grand Prairie, but I am not good at being deceitful so I probably won't get very far.

I guess I can scrimp and save like everyone else. One day I will get to one of those "exotic" places, but for now at least I can dream about it and live through my friends. Today this friend of mine went to Alcatraz, I hope they didn't keep him there.