Friday, March 18, 2011

Travel

I was catching up with a high sschool friend, Ed, and told him about my trip to Nicaragua to help my sister come home.  I'm impressed that he also went to the same country, because Bainbridge Island has a sister city there.  He drove, which I knew was a theoretical possibility..  He asked me if that was my last big trip.  One thing I learned on that flight is that one can ask for wheelchairs and attendants to get across airports.  I have no hesitation about asking for that help.  My mother made trips to Hawaii and London right up to the time she went into a nursing home at 70.

I have been saving up Amtrak frequent rider points through a credit card with the goal of taking Carol to see my gay pen pal with HD in Toronto.  If I manage to save up more, she gets to choose the next train destination.

I'd love to take Carol to Italy, a country I love for its beautiful language and delicious food.  She is an art enthusiast and would eat up that part of the culture there.  Money is tight, so we won't make it there unless we have a surprise infusion of cash.  Nicaragua may wind up being the last intercontinental trip.

I made a day trip to Vancouver, BC, for a longitudinal study I am in at UBC.  I had a thinko and made my reservation to Vancouver, Washington.  I didn't find that out until the day before I went, when Amtrak left me a message about changing the train to the bus. By that time, the right train was full.  I took a Greyhound that arrived too close to my appointment.  I was half an hour late.

I broke my glasses and had to make an appointment to replace them.  I asked my friend Dick to give me a ride but also come along as a fashion consultant, because I am too butch to choose frames.  Dick was about to say he doesn't have the designer sense gene as a gay man, when he remembered a time we had gone dancing.  I fit the stereotype of a lesbian telling him it was all right to wear rubber bottom shoes, because I had some duct tape in the car.  He fit the stereotype of the gay man going immediately to Nordstrom's for some leather soled shoes.

The present moment makes me laugh.

2 comments:

  1. Great post on travel joys and problems, Marian. I hope you get to return to Italy with Carol. That would be a way fun trip.

    The story about you and Dick made me laugh, too!

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  2. It's encouraging to hear you have travel plans. I have days when I think the pleasure of travel wouldn't be worth the pain of it, but I still have a sharp longing to see some far off places. Maybe with help and accommodations that can still happen, who knows...

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