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 Depending upon
how you look at it, traveling is either a good thing or a bad
thing. I realize that seems kind of dumb to say, but for those of
us that have traveled a lot during our lives can certainly
understand where I’m coming from. I get tickled when I hear
someone make some comment to me about how wonderful it is to
travel around and see different things all of the time. I suppose
that would certainly be true if you were very wealthy and had
staff members packing and unpacking your stuff at each stop along
the way. I’m not too certain that even the very rich or famous
enjoy living out of suitcases week after week. Waking up in some
new place each day can get old in a hurry. There is nothing like
home sweet home to make you happy and content. The older I get the
wiser I am, which works to my favor in most cases.
When I was younger I didn’t know to
ask which way the rooms were facing and often as not ended up with
a terrific view of brick walls, parking lots and air-conditioning
units around the world. I now know to ask where my room is in
relationship to (a) elevators (b) the swimming pool in the summer
(c) anywhere the band plays. In the bar, I order what the locals
drink, not something I heard about in London or Frankfurt.
Sometimes asking for a beer from Mexico while sitting in a café in
Michigan will be enough to hack someone off. I don’t do it
anymore. If I’m somewhere on the ocean, I order seafood, not
steaks. If I’m in the middle of Kansas, it’s the other way around.
Frozen fish is not fresh fish to me. Lobsters aren’t close to
Topeka. All in all, you have to be fairly flexible if you want to
maintain your sense of sanity while traveling. I think of it as an
adventure, not drudgery.
Sure it gets tiring moving from one
place to another, but think of it this way….how else would you get
an opportunity to see a cheese museum, the latest snake farm or my
all time favorite…the tattoo hall of fame? You can’t do this
sitting on your bum at home. Nope, you have to get out there and
get into it. I’m not really picky about where I hang my hat at
night as long as it’s clean and has a good shower. I’ve spent the
night in some expensive dumps and had a great time in some cheap
motels along the highway. You just have to be prepared to take the
bad with the good. If I’m driving and see a truck stop loaded with
big rigs, then find the waitresses really good looking, I leave.
Most likely the food is horrible, but the scenery is nice. No, I
look for well-populated truck stops with regular looking employees
not movie stars. Chances are this is where the best food can be
found.
Back in the late 1800’s, loggers would
look over the condition of the pigs before signing on with a
logging camp. If the pigs were skinny, then the food was good
because there weren’t that many left overs….if the pigs were fat,
they figured the food was bad and there was a lot being thrown
away. This makes sense to me, but who knows if it’s true or not?
What amazes me after all these years is the fact that no matter
how different we seem from each other, the more we have in common.
Every cab driver I’ve ever had, can tell you about his kids or his
family or talk about where he came from and how he got here. We
were in a restaurant in Seattle last week and ordered a dessert of
some type or another. First thing we knew, the chef came out of
the kitchen, asked to sit down and wanted to know how we liked the
food. We talked for about ten minutes and had a great time.
People all over the world are just
that…people. They eat, they drink, they go to church, they have
teenagers, they have kids in school, and they have son in laws and
mother in laws. I get lost, I ask directions. I can’t read the
menu, I ask what they recommend. Sure, sometimes you get a bad
deal, but very rarely. Mostly I just enjoy where I am when I’m
there. Not such a bad deal is it?
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