Best Deal

My wife and I have a disparity of vacation preferences.  She seems perfectly content at home, willing to go to our kids' homes hours away when somebody else gets her there, and mostly stays inside their places when there.  I have more of a preference to escape to the new, willing to burden myself a bit to do this.  When at the kids, I zip around SF's Muni System, walk the neighborhoods, occasionally book a tour that I go on myself.  At my son's, I walk the blocks near his inner city house and drive around to different places. Hop-on Hop-off buses get a ticket, even though few stops see me exit to explore up close.  I seek the window seat on planes and buses.  New places interest me, even if they are daily stops to those who live there.

Day Trips, typically three, usually occupy my semi-annual agenda, mostly fulfilled by driving somewhere alone or using my free SEPTA Senior Pass to get me to a place I've not visited before.  It's time to get away again, though with a hotel.  Couples time.  The Good Old Summertime.  

My wife and I had our discussion, mostly her setting boundaries.  Our last two multiday road trips did not go well.  Cruises to the Maritimes would fill her need to minimize effort and my need to explore new places.  All filled up by the time we explored cruise options online.  As much as I like National Parks, flights of significant distance followed by a rental car for the multi-hour connection of hub to park fell outside the parameters, before we even get into the park and its requirements for driving and light hiking.

We settled on a three-night excursion within five hours of home.  Electric maps have made that easy.  In five hours, as our distance driving is never shared, I can cover about 250 miles.  Draw a radius from my home address.  I've already visited most of the places inside that circle during my working years.  Only Long Island as a tourist and the Capital Region of NY remain novel.  I looked at both.  Long Island is closer and has more to do.  Generous responders on FB's Visit All 50 States and r/long island of Reddit assured me that a senior couple would have things to do there beyond attending a Bar Mitzvah or funeral within my extended family.  Historical sites, wineries, landscapes, ferries, and gawking at old and new money.  Good for a few days.  For all the antagonisms of social media, sometimes the groups function as communities of helpful people instead of the more typical arena model.

When to go?  I picked dates.  My doctor picked the same dates for a periodic procedure that has gotten a little overdue.  I picked later dates, a time that significantly lowered the hotel prices for the places that seemed most suitable geographically.

Now dates in place, recovery from medical procedure anticipated, alternate dates adjustable by a day or two if hotel rates come down in a different three-night stay, it's time to find a place to stay.  Long Island is the largest island in the continental USA.  It takes hours to drive its length.  It might also take an hour to get past the two boroughs of NYC that comprise its western portion, which I would prefer to avoid this vacation.  I don't want to access beaches, at least not as a swimmer or basker.  Still, the tourism that I seek stretches hours, from the gilded, repurposed mansions at the western and northern extreme to Montauk at the southern and western extreme, would require some driving.  If I stayed in the middle, which seems to be near the island's airport, I would still have an hour to get to the end of the North and South Forks.  Where the forks separate, a town called Riverhead, might serve as a base.  Hotel prices for that convenience come at more of a premium than I am willing to spend.

By now, I've gotten experienced at selecting hotels and airline reservations through online travel sites, though I always check directly with the hotels and carriers to see if they pass some of what they save by avoiding the travel site fee  back to the vacationer.  It usually doesn't.  For accommodations, unless an overnight rest before the next day's flight when a simple bed will do, I have my preferred amenities.  I like the place I choose to have a pool if I am staying more than one day, preferably indoor.  Most hotel stays I enter it.  In warm places, outdoor usually suffices, but I've been to SC in their shoulder season where the outdoor option proved chilly.  Wi-Fi in room has become a must.  For all the legitimate critiques of global connections' downsides, I have learned to ration how I use this, yet still feel deprived without it.  Even on cruises, I purchase a minimal internet package.  For an American hotel, I ask the travel sites to eliminate places that have a surcharge.  I also need parking, whether driving with my own car or a rental.  It's one hassle that I find objectionable.  Within reason, I am willing to pay for assured garage space in a big city, but most of the places I select in recent years occupy enclaves of a few hotels in proximity of a shopping center.  This serves me well.  And exercise on schedule borders as a must.  Most places have small work-out areas with a treadmill whose settings options surpass what I use at home.  Breakfast buffet does not appear on my screens.  They are convenient, usually adequate.  I often prefer to drive to a local breakfast place with a menu, sit there with my wife as we choose eggs or pancakes.  I take the anticipated price of eating at a diner into account.

That still leaves a significant number of options.  Then sort by price.  Mostly, I cannot assess location.  For Long Island, I know that the airport and Brookhaven National Labs are in the middle, Stony Brook where I almost attended school sits in the north, the Hamptons, which I cannot afford lie to the south, and Riverhead where the forks branch is closest to the optimal location.  I'll drive a bit more with my own car for a lower prices.  

My wife deferred the selection to me, after we reviewed the various options together.  I chose one near Brookhaven with the amenities I need and the ability to drive to places tourists to Long Island might like to go.  Best Deal?  Probably not.  This is one of those projects where the perfect undermines the good.  To be sure, I agreed to a surcharge for at-will cancellation.

On the Move

International Travel, or at least bucket list travel, has taken hold among my friends.  Synagogue President off to Madagascar.  They have unique beaches, probably a local culture, vanilla trees climbed by lemurs, but it's a schlep.  Another fellow off to Bulgaria.  I suppose Rick Steves has complimentary observations about the place.  Another on a cruise of the Seine, another in Alaska, both more typical of where prosperous Americans seek a change of pace in their healthy senior years.  Another HS friend posts daily FB photos from Italy.  And not Rome or the Vatican, but the countryside. Another has travel plans to Vietnam.  I did my utmost to avoid subsidized time there.

My own desire to explore the world in the safe tourist mode will need to remain dormant this summer as we anticipate our first grandchildren in different parts of America.  There are a few distant places I might like to experience.  My ancestral towns of Europe, Australia's cities and Outback, the Orient.  My favorite teacher, the Señorita, once took a group to Spain as she immersed us in Spanish culture over the nearer and more accessible Mexican one.  I've never had much desire to explore Iberia other than its Golden Age Jewish quarters.  African Safari?  Maybe in my younger years, not now.  And I'd still like to see the aurora.  It came in proximity of my home for one night, but I missed it.

My last few travels, those to unique places, have exposed some downsides.  I very much liked a week in Paris, more mixed review of the guided tour.  I'd probably have chosen different activities.  Some were spectacular.  Don't think I benefited much from a cooking demonstration and definitely did not want to pay through the nose for the illusion of entertainment at Le Moulin Rouge.  Road trips have become more my speed.  Mammoth Cave a spectacular place.  The drive there interesting but tedious as the lone driver.  Tennessee, another great place to get to and to be at.  NYC brought me to places on Manhattan Island I'd not visited before.  Getting there and back as a driver to Jersey would have been better delegated to some form of public transit.  Pittsburgh and back, an expensive Turnpike, discounted by EZ Pass.  SF, vacation the first time, work or visiting all subsequent times, with recreation carved in. And cruises.  Just get there and make a plan for each day, while eating at whim.  The suitable replacement for Grossinger's with a daily element of tourism.  

This summer, I will just have to admire everyone else's explorations.

 

Packing Judiciously

By now I should have more experience, or at least more wisdom.  My long-awaited trip has reached its packing stage.  A round-trip plane ride of several hours.  To take advantage of schedules and preferred airlines and avoid plane transfers, we selected 8AM flights both ways, which will require us to rise much before my daily smartwatch signals.  It also seemed prudent to turn our car rental in one day early, while transferring from more luxurious lodging to a hotel with airport transportation for our final night.  Those inconveniences bookend four full days and most of the first day.  Our purpose of travel this time is a family event, an informal gathering of people dear to us, including two in utero, most of whom we only met once or twice previously.  Other than that afternoon, I have no compelling reason to make a personal appearance that leaves a favorable, enduring impression.  I bought a new shirt for the occasion, one that looks better without a tie, which I will not pack.  The remainder of our visit will include a day trip, visiting a synagogue where I had wanted to worship on a Shabbos morning for fifty years but never had the right circumstance.  The hotel has amenities, so every incentive to try out their treadmill which has more features than mine.  There are aquatics at the hotel.  My usual summer wetness at home in recent years has been limited to two beach outings and a water park linked to an amusement park, which I opted to forgo this summer.

Packing does not seem difficult.  My daily and seasonal clothing is fully organized by each type of garment.  Polo shirts stacked neatly in the closet.  Pants on hangers, with dress pants, chinos, and jeans sorted.  Three t-shirt bins.  A drawer devoted to colored socks and a section with white socks.  Just go through each section.  When I did that, it filled a laundry basket.  Having lived in that city, I remember the seasons well.  Organizing clothing properly, which I have, allows for appearance choices with little advance planning.  If I want to put on blue shorts, moccasins, and a team t-shirt, I take them out and put them on.  Suitcases do not handle contingencies as easily.  I can take only a few t-shirts, so priorities matter.  Regionals, like Philly, alma mater, and Delaware logos.  Maybe my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle selection should have representation.  And as a platelet donor, the many appreciative t-shirts I've received make a statement about what I value.  And our trip spans Memorial Day.  Must have something that says USA.  Summer weather invites shorts.  Plaid or solid, plain pocket or cargo.  White socks some days, colored others.  A team baseball hat, but I can only take one of dozens.  And shoes, multipurpose shoes that go from treadmill to street.  The good carry-on remains in the closet in My Space. It would get rather heavy if everything I put into the laundry basket gets transferred to it, but it has wheels.  Finally, grooming, including the TSA liquid restrictions.  I've accumulated multiple Dopp sets over the decades.

The SDS Weatherman, or the reasonably predictive weather.com, altered my preferences considerably.  Downpours at home on both my travel days.  Rain at my destination most of my visit days.  Unseasonably cool temperatures.  That means long sleeves, which I did not intend to bring, fewer shorts and T's, an undershirt most days, long leg pajamas, maybe a sweatshirt with a home logo, and a baseball cap that would not cause distress if lost or ruined by the storms.  Some layers.  Less using clothing to showcase myself as a sojourner among natives, including our hosts at the family event.

What I intended, assuming better weather than the forecast indicates, was not very smart.  Too many outfits, decisions on appearance deferred to the times of dressing with too many options, much like at home.  Some of my logo items can stay home. Or better, buy a new t-shirt or two while I am traveling, one that announces where I've been when I return home.  Layer things.  Bring a poncho.  Replace the coarse canvas tote with a mini-backpack.

And do not get sidetracked from the trip's purpose.  Family event.  Overdue visit to a once pioneering synagogue.  A day trip to a place I've not visited before.  Being with my kids.  Celebrating their pregnancies. Enjoy some hotel amenities.  The suitcase and its contents enable that.  I really do not need to display all my teams, the Blood Bank, or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Getting There

In a week, I promised a person most dear to me that we would get together in NY.  She flies across America to enjoy a few days there.  I only have one specified day, a day trip not done for several years.  My transportation options are numerous.  Drive to and park in Manhattan.  Drive to a suburb that accesses either PATH or NJ Transit, park at the station, then enter Manhattan by regional rail.  Amtrak connects my city with Manhattan, though for a steep fare.  Bus options also exist from my city.  I could take regional rail to Philadelphia, then a bus with frequent departure and return times from there to Manhattan.  Or with senior discounts, I could take regional rail all the way from my town to Manhattan at a steep discount but parallel steep inconvenience.

My master teacher's imprint emerges.  John, of blessed memory, taught his fellows to list all possibilities that will solve a challenge, even the unrealistic ones.  From these, the best option emerges.  Since having surgeon remove a thyroid solves most thyroid conditions, that needed to be on John's sort through list, even if not accepted medical practice for the particular thyroid problem.  I approach transit in a similar manner.  The goal: visit the young lady I most want to see, getting there and back on the same day.

Considerations:

• Cost/Value
• Personal Effort
• Time Flexibility
• Logistics
• Foreseen Annoyances

It has been my good fortune to reach my Golden Years financially independent.  Even the most expensive of the options, round trip Amtrak for my wife and me, will not materially affect my personal financial position.  Their Senior Discount exists only nominally, though.  Getting to the train station and back is straightforward.  They have a parking garage across the street.  Downside other than cost, would be the schedules.  They don't run that often.  The commuter train to NYC has business travelers with expense accounts.  The extra $25 per ride is the cost of doing business at peak times, a pittance to what the traveler would be paid for doing his or her work.  Off-peak fare is less, but it delays my time with my guest.  Getting home would pose the same considerations.  On the up side, once en route I can basically relax next to my wife in a comfortable seat, occupying myself in any number of ways with what I can carry in my cross chest travel pouch.

Driving offers flexibility.  My wife would function as the passive passenger, amusing herself with crosswords or radio or chatting with me.  I have to pay attention to the road.  GPS has immensely simplified road trips.  I can deal with the highway, but the optimal exit that gets me to the NJ commuter train is not obvious.  I also have to deal with local roads once nearing my destination, find an unfamiliar parking lot, probably pay electronically, and walk to the commuter rail station.  By now I have some experience paying for parking at kiosks.  Costs include the hidden one, my gas tank filled the day before, usually about $30.  Turnpike tolls about $30 round-trip. Bridge toll home $6.  Parking estimates seem to be about $25.  Commuter rail across the Hudson River is nominal.  I could drive into Manhattan.  For my trouble, I would incur city driving, more expensive and less available parking, and a bridge toll.  Between hassle and expense, leaving the car in NJ seems the better option.

There are buses from my town.  A single bus line does not serve round trip at the times I would need to travel.  As a result, I would have to park in the garage near the Greyhound station in the morning then walk about ten minutes through some seedy blocks to get to the Rockleigh bus on time.  The bus lets passengers off in a difficult part of Manhattan.  However, I have taken this bus a few times.  It provides a pleasant ride.  For the return trip, which may approach dark on arrival home, I would have to take Greyhound which stops near where I park my car.  Fare, about $35 per ride.

Two other options that I would consider if traveling alone, though not with my wife and not with the need to meet a special person in NYC.  I have a Senior Rail pass that lets me ride to and within Philadelphia for free.  I could take that to Philadelphia, paying a nominal $2 parking fee at the rail terminal.  Then take the city bus or subway to the bus terminal, which would get me to NYC.  These buses leave frequently at mostly convenient times.  They seem to charge about $17 per ride.  There are downsides to safety and convenience.  I would have to time the commuter rail schedule to the bus departure schedule, leaving me enough time to get from train to intercity bus by SEPTA city transit.  The bus stops are now in different places skirting Center City, mostly places where crime poses a significant concern, particularly if returning after dark.  And I would need to make sure I get back to the commuter rail stop in time for the final train that brings me to my home station.  A suitable adventure for me, not suitable for an important day trip.

And for roughly the same price, I could use my free pass to Philadelphia, transfer to a line to NJ Transit in Trenton, which would no longer be free but not expensive, and then use a Senior Discount on NJ Transit to NYC.  I would have to get home.  Schedules are limited, but on the return trip I could take a bus to Philadelphia, taking advantage of their frequent departures, and complete my trip home by SEPTA.  That I do myself when I want to convince myself that I can do this.

At my son's college graduation, Mayor Bloomberg told the class to seek four elements in their personal initiatives, words that I put on my whiteboard the next day, where they have remained in my line of sight for 17 years.

1. Independence
2. Honesty
3. Accountability
4. Innovation

My travel options offer an expression of all of these.  My ability to sort out options.  A sense of what is suitable for one circumstance but not for all circumstances.  Responsibilities that I have for my wife's comfort and to spend time with my West Coast Visitor.  Setting priorities of safety, convenience, and value.  John z"l would be pleased with the ability to reason that he insisted I acquire.  For this trip, time with the people who count the most takes priority.  For another trip, traveling alone, my ability to explore something novel that I've not done before might become the overriding purpose.  I've not yet chosen my preferred travel option for this trip but I seem willing to spend a little extra for somebody else to operate the vehicles while my wife and I have a minimal hassle and optimal time with our special visitor.

Enjoying Spring Break

As a student, I would read about kids making their way to Ft. Lauderdale or Daytona Beach for spring break.  With my tuition and living expenses in school already burdening my father, any cost for debauchery would be prohibitive, even unthinkable.  No doubt some kids could load into another classmate's car, drive to Florida and back in shifts, and share a motel room, paid for by their part-time jobs in the school cafeteria.  In all my university years, I never knew anyone at my school who prioritized their amusement that way, though some devoted parts of summers touring Europe with rail passes and hostels.  Europe has an enrichment value that recreation on a beach drinking beer obtained by an acquaintance with an of age ID lacks.  As a wage earner, I had my share of vacations, some very memorable ones.  Few with hedonism as the focus.  Not even those on cruise ships or beach resorts.  A respite from work became the goal.  Sampling new things, staying away from the telephone, protected time with my wife.  Nothing close to debauchery on my agenda.

Now in my senior years, not needing a respite from any rat race but still with personal schedules to maintain, I find some chill time seriously overdue.  I last took a cruise about six years ago, an Adriatic one that included strenuous tourism in addition to the food, aquatics, and entertainment.  I cannot remember when I last checked into a resort for a few days.  Not since I retired.  My Osher Institute program has its downtime.  Six weeks in winter, more in summer.  One week at the start of spring.  My plans to get away for a couple of days in the winter fell through for the first time in a few years.  The last few spring breaks and the summers, I went on touring type vacations to major cities, places of history, or National Parks.  All places that required agendas or itineraries.  What I need now may be chill time, even if only for a few days.

My funds are ample.  So is my health and energy, adjusted for overdue recreation.  I disliked most of my visits to Florida.  Las Vegas may be a suitable getaway.  Facebook friends periodically travel there for a few days, sometimes prompted by a special show or a need to merge relaxation with stimulation.  It struck me as a good option.  Three or four nights at a hotel, depending on airline schedules.  Bright lights, places to get wet.  Buffets.  Day trips.  Shows at night. No rental car needed.  Just right for a few days.  I would just have to convince my wife, who to my surprise, seemed almost as ready for a few days of minimal responsibilities.  

On to the travel sites.  Air and hotel.  These have now embedded themselves into DIY getaways.  Look for airfares.  Assess places to stay.  Once transparent and straightforward.  Now with budget airlines competing with legacy carriers and people turning their homes or investment property as places to stay, comparisons of options require more sophistication than they once did.  The sites themselves more overtly serve their subscribers than their end consumers like me.  Low Ball teaser rates in big print.  Total packages once taxes, resort fees, and cleanup assessments of Airbnbs, change that considerably.  And the geeks who could enable sorting any way they desire restrict users to sorting by big print.

So three or four nights in Vegas, getting there and back, sleeping, amenities, and eating.  My airport has a dominant carrier with a few budget options.  Round Trip about $350 for American Airlines, $150 + baggage fees for the discounters.  So I thought.  Not that big a difference.  Pick based on departure and arrival times.  Round trip by American Airlines is not really $350.  It is $450.  If you pick a discounter for the return trip, it is $350 plus luggage fee in one direction.  You are not really buying a round trip but one way trips in each direction added to each other when you get to their electronic cash register to pay.  I was willing to spend a flat $350 or $700 for a couple to travel.  I am not willing to spend $900 for my own downtime just to get there and back, especially traveling home cramped in a high pack fuselage.

Hotels, or really places to stay, sorted by teaser rates in big print with full cost of three nights in little print.  Airbnb or vbro might be great if three couples are traveling or if somebody is staying ten days.  The cleanup add-on, part of a hotel's business model, is exorbitant but at least fixed.  Divided three ways over ten days, maybe a reasonable consideration.  Paid by one traveler who only stayed three days, or even one night, doesn't make sense.  Yet I cannot seem to get Travelocity and Hotels.com to eliminate them from my list.  I cannot get them to list the options by real price instead of teaser price.  Not that it matters.  The airfare reality eliminates Vegas.  Just as a college kid, or even as a gainfully employed prosperous adult, pampering of self never had high priority, as much as I enjoyed the times when it happened.

If not Vegas, what about Florida?  I dislike being in Florida most of my visits, don't want to rent a car.  What about Atlantic City?  It's a scaled-down Vegas with spas.  Its grand hotels discounted off-season, accessible by an amount of driving that I am willing to do if I only need to put myself behind the wheel for the hour and a half in each direction it takes to travel there and back.  On to Travelocity again.  Bargain resort hotels in Big Numbers, acceptable with the add-ons with adjacent fine font numbers.  Except what you see is not always what you get.  Some bundle use of the recreation facilities, some hotels go à la carte with a fee for the sauna and steam rooms.  The travel middlemen do not distinguish these.  After picking candidate hotels, I need to go to each site to calculate my own real costs for what I want to do there, from parking to pool, buffets to shows.  I'm getting close to maybe.  Generally you get what you pay for.  Figuring out what you do and don't pay for takes some exploration.  I've not yet abandoned an upcoming respite focused on my physical pleasure.

My age and background give me an advantage.  I learned basic numeracy in the 1960s courtesy of the taxpayers of Ramapo Central School District #2.  Math instruction and analysis of data in science classes progressed from one year to the next.  It was done with brain and paper.  My university years in the 1970s saw my own need to travel periodically.  Big stuff was sorted by a professional travel agent.  Hotels and airfare or train fare to visit family between cities required mostly the skills achieved the previous decade.  Air fares had fixed rates until the Carter years airline deregulation.  Even then, fewer carriers competed with each other, honoring their teaser offerings.  Hotels either advertised in the local newspaper or a handful of chains had begun to emerge.  Knowing how to assess transportation and lodging by hand lets me move from travel site boldface numbers to real costs fairly easily. This may be more difficult for younger folks who already had their numerical data pre-digested.  

How badly do I need an escape?  What is the monetary value of that escape?  I know how to answer this.  My personal hedonism is definitely price elastic.  That price, though, still has some flexibility.

Too Much Driving

As much as I like road trips, I've probably driven my last one.  The route took my odometer up some 1880 miles over a week, traversing five states with two destination stops and two overnight motel rests.  My one-day behind the wheel capacity now seems to be a bit over 400 miles, considerably less than in my 20s when school took me from the East Coast to school in the midwest about twice a year.  If my sleep pattern as a Senior is interrupted in my own bed, the motel beds do not do much better.  

In some ways, long drives have gotten easier over three decades. GPS far outperforms maps and written turn directions. The Interstate Highway System is reasonably complete and sophisticated.  At each interchange there are separate signs for lodging, food, and gas to be found nearby.  At the end of the ramps, signs indicate which direction the driver needs to turn for the chosen service.  Smartphones have made setting up hotel reservations on short notice straightforward.  The gas stations have affiliated convenience stores for coffee and refreshments, sometimes more substantial food.  And all these places are economical, with gasoline costing less than at home and quick overnight motels less expensive than the places I booked for my intended destinations.

As I drove along the Interstates in Virginia's full north-south dimension and the eastern half of Tennessee's east-west dimension, there were places to stop such as state parks, wineries, or mini-historical sites, each providing brief rest to those who need to move on, though perhaps more of a destination to people who live near those places. 

Modern automotive advances also make these journeys easier.  My smartphone will read an audiobook as I drive or I can set Bluetooth to music.  Radios have channel selectors that find local stations.  Cruise control can be used for large sections of highway.  Speed limits have gotten higher.  Virginia made the scenery visible from the highway attractive.  TN and WV did not.

The drive sometimes has its hassles.  I like stopping at universities as the break option, visiting the bookstores, often purchasing a logo coffee mug.  I didn't do well this time, as we visited close to moving day and signs for visitor parking were few.  My long drives are always to some pre-determined attraction, this time Nashville and Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  This always raises an important element in the analysis.  Was the effort of getting there, whether a substantial time on the road or airport irritations, justified by the purpose of the trip?  For the western national parks it always is.  It usually is to visit an international attractions such as Niagara Falls or a unique city like Charleston.  Nashville and the Smokies seemed less so.  A lot of driving for a garish few blocks of loud country music and a park with limited geological uniqueness, to say nothing of the mostly annoying town that supports it. Parking provided by hotels, but something of a ripoff and ordeal when dealing with the municipalities.  I think of Gatlinburg as rural, but parking fees may keep the town afloat. I avoided the expensive flat rate lots.  In Nashville and in Gatlinburg, each city has automated parking validation by card, with a mechanism I delegated to my wife, as it was not obvious to me.  Meters were better.

Travel also brings you to people.  They were invariably pleasant.  Our weekend at the Park coincided with a national convention of Jeep owners, thousands of them, so I got to chat with a few briefly about their interests.  With the Grand Ole Opry I expected people wrapped in the Cross and the Flag.  While it attracted almost no people of darker complexion, and some Gospel elements were built into the music, the experience seemed less sectarian than I expected.  And The Hermitage, plantation of Andrew Jackson, offered much insight into the era and its economics, the estate required much walking.

While I considered driving all the way home from the park, about nine hours, safety concerns prevailed.  I left the final three and a half hours, much through populated areas, for the following morning.  I arrived home at mid-day, unpacked after some rest in my own bed, then picked up a few things I would need to make supper.  I'm tired.  

While I needed different scenery, which is what I got, the strain on me this time might have exceeded the benefits of the two destinations.  And my wife, as passenger with a chance to amuse herself with her cell phone for hours as I drove, did not seem to tolerate the travel very well either. She developed a fever, testing positive for Covid. Likely our last multiday drive.

On the Road

Full backpack, full duffle.  Extra tote bag.  Portable comforts of home while traveling along with some comforts not at arm's lengths at home.  It took nearly two days driving to arrive in Nashville, my first venture anywhere in Tennessee.  Very pleasant hotel with a treadmill more sophisticated than mine.  A breakfast buffet well above the economy hotel grab-and-go that I am used to.  And a pool, a slightly chilly experience for late summer in a southern destination.  Don't have these at home.  

Offsetting this, at home I have a fully functional laptop, cell phone, and most importantly car with readily accessible service the few times an urgency arises.  I have parking spaces where I need them.  My home bathrooms have every imaginable comfort.  Cars and electronics are designed to be portable over great distances.  The securities of home are not.

Travel serves as an adventure, exchanging some of the familiar with uncertainty, at the price of hassle.  Our travel industry has deprived us of some of this.  The hotels advertised at each exit have franchises at the exits I take to go home.  Fast food logos prompt our minds to their ads we saw on TV, The Convenience stores still seem regional.  My WaWa was replaced by a slightly different sometimes better Sheetz in the mid-Atlantic or by Weigel's which I first sampled in Tennessee.  They have a similar format but differ a bit on coffee dispensers and what type of travel food they will assemble for you.

Destinations always have something that prompts the trip.  Sometimes better weather.  For me, unique attractions and aspects of geography.  The people are recognizably distributed differently.  The Grand Ole Opry entertained with music I would not seek out at home, yet dominated by white Christian Nationalists who stay far more under the radar at home.

And within the recognizable populations, there are universities, some rather grand, that create their own diverse enclaves.

At the hotel, my car has a secure place to rest overnight.  The internet access could be better.  But I also have country music, a different expression of patriotism and religion, Halls of Fame for people who I don't think are that famous but have excelled in their niches, some history, some living vestiges of that history.  Worth the automotive and electronic inconveniences. 

Travel Week

Making a list and checking it twice.  Leaving on a road trip at mid-week.  Looked forward to it immensely as I juggled the travel options, let my wife select among them, and then made the hotel reservations just over a month ago.  No air travel, no car rental.  Just time on the highways with some diversions off the highways to places I've not visited before.  And wife at my side.  The challenge of exploration peaked quickly, then waned.  Doubts emerged.  Right places?  Enough time at each designated stop.  Best use of limited destination time?  I'm comfortable with what I have arranged.  Like most projects, the start comes with anticipation, the end with eagerness, but the middle drags.  I am emerging from that middle.

At the Brew HaHa, where I've not been for Sunday morning coffee in a very long time, I created a pre-travel checklist.  It fills most of a loose-leaf column.  Getting car optimal.  Not forgetting stuff.  Doing stuff that needs doing at home that cannot wait a week once overlooked.  Having devices charged with capacity to do additional charging at my destinations.  Having some recreation at hand, whether an ebook or audio book from the library or sketching pencils.  Having destinations pre-set on Waze.  Having enough cash.

Realistically, anything except my medicines and electronics that I forget to pack, or find that I really need, can be purchased.  Every town has a Walmart, a chain pharmacy, and regional convenience stores with gas stations.  If I neglect to wash my car, it wasn't cleaned before.  My exercise program scores close to 100% without special prompting, so the remaining stretch and treadmill sessions really do not need to have their own places on my checklist.

It is still vacation, one that I am looking forward to more than my spring getaway closer to home.  I feel more in need of a scenery change now.  Anxiety free is important.  So I devote the time it takes to drink a large mug of coffee to having this reliable pre-travel to-do list.  No items on it will travel with me.

Vacation Planning

At the end of last summer we had a grand vacation, time in Paris with a guided tour followed by free days.  Memorable for sure.  Expensive.

Had a respite a few hours away this spring, but I need something more elaborate.  I gave my wife a few options with their limitations, mainly the driving that falls to me, irrespective of whether we use my car or a rental.  Not a concern in Paris.  No big problems in Virginia.  The new options of Black Hills, Nova Scotia, and Tennessee will keep me on the road quite a bit.  She opted for Tennessee, divided between Nashville and the Great Smokies, with minor detours to Jack Daniel's and Biltmore.  No planes.  No car rentals.  Just under two months to anticipate.

This should be pretty easy.  Two nights one place, two nights another, one night each to be decided in each direction based on how far I can drive in a day.  Not as easy as it looks.

Travelocity and Son of Travelocity once had an ease that has evaporated.  Pick a city, designate a maximum price, make sure it has Wi-Fi, parking, and pool, then sort by price.  Some snags.  Price puts you a considerable distance from the sights, so sort instead by distance from downtown or preferred sites.  That's better.  Except what you see is not what you get.  Two nights should be the room rate doubled with an increment for taxes.  Unfortunately, not every place you can stay is a hotel.  Sometimes the cost of two days is three to four times the posted room rate.  That's because these travel sites now mingle hotels with other properties that rent short term, the Airbnb's and Vrbo's.  They have a room rate and taxes.  But they have a Property Fee, Reservation Fee, and Cleanup Fee, all a set amount whether you stay for two nights or a week.  For somebody looking for a night or two, that's clutter.  And Travelocity has no mechanism for discarding them from the search.

Nashville has some special considerations.  There are places tourists want to be.  But there is also Vanderbilt University with its world renowned medical center, pro sports, the State Capitol and government activity, Parking is extra, sometimes nominal, often not.  And there are cancellation fee options, sometimes another 20% above the room rate.  Some places near the popular sites have a shuttle.  Hotels are now mostly non-smoking.  Patron reviews reveal loose enforcement by some.  All have Wi-Fi. Not all have room Wi-Fi bundled to the room rate.  And prior patrons comment on unreliable Wi-Fi.

This took some serious effort.  I selected a place, part of a national chain, about a mile from Music.  Paid for non-smoking but braced for what reviewers have conveyed.  If Wi-Fi fails, I can go across the street or to Starbucks.  My stay includes two scheduled treadmill days.  The hotel has a treadmill, though the one in Virginia did not function.  And if all disappoints, I can get into my car, visit a local site, or drive onward to Jack Daniel's.

Concluding Vacation

This time a short getaway.  Leave Monday, return Friday.  And not very far, less than three hours of mostly highway driving.  One major misadventure, but mostly what times away strive to be.  Relocations from home.  Experiences not readily duplicated at home.  Escapes from the routines of home., 

Not a resort or major international attraction this time, yet still with features of a vacation.  We stayed at a hotel, a very ordinary chain.   Not the most expensive or luxurious, but not No Frills either.  Ample parking, Wi-Fi included in the fee.  I would not select a site, at least in the USA, that did not have these if I had a car in my possession, either mine or a rental.  I've come to expect a pool, in fact, use the presence of a pool as a filter on my online hotel searches, if I will be staying more than three days.  This one had a hot tub as well.  Breakfast buffets have become an expectation of family-style chain operations.  Some more elaborate than others.  I have mixed feelings about these.  I like the convenience, particularly as it allows my wife and me to keep different sleeping schedules.  Cruise ship buffets are over the top.  Motels trade fancy or imaginative for convenience.  Coffee, pastry, bagel, and egg will get me started.  Though I do not include breakfast in my hotel search filters.  Often I prefer to go out to a diner that serves breakfast, one with a menu and waitress, one with people who live nearby opting to have their own breakfast there.  Breakfasts are rarely expensive.  Pillows are usually fluffier than mine, and more of them.  Mattresses often firmer.  And activity more tiring.  I rarely experience serious insomnia at these places.

Vacation is partly about being someplace different, but also doing different things.  Over an adult lifetime, I've had the good fortune to vary the experience, though I can certainly understand other people who work all year to get their two weeks of fishing, camping, or golf as their annual destination.  I've been to resorts, geological wonders, cities of international or historical importance, cruise ships with days at sea dedicated to indulgence, and theme parks that attract visitors of global representation. Each selection unique, while I am the same person wherever my travels take me.  I seek out the new, whether from the buffet at a casino, the selection of on-tap drafts, an exclusive store to gawk at items far above budget, or a National Park creature that I wish I could pet.

Wonder does not always appear on the travel brochure.  On my current trip to a bedroom enclave outside my Nation's Capital, my car takes me through many habitats where people live and work.  Despite the proximity to one of the most cosmopolitan centers in the world, what I found just beyond common commuting distance was the preservation of agricultural land.  I found a lot of repurposing.  Historical buildings in the center of town made into restaurants, surrounded by a rim of upscale homes purchased by people of means and imagination for their potential.  Then a rim of where people like me work, shop, and attend school.  Not a lot of churches considering the population density.  And then a rim of homes which I found on Zillow for about $2.2M.  Lots of them.  Enough to make me wonder how so many people earned or inherited so much more money than I was able to generate.  Vacations tend to make me wonder how my life might have turned out differently had I lived there.  Could I be an islander, a pioneer, an immigrant who will never return to the starting point, a person who sails the ocean while the family sees him a few times a year?  At my hotel, native Spanish speakers dominate the staff.  It would be unthinkable to withhold courtesy or kindness from anyone I've met, though not unthinkable to vote for people to represent me who might be a bit harsh to those we know only by a TV news site presence.

I'm probably more polite, perhaps more considerate, as the guest of another place than I am at home.  I know the people who serve me depend on financial tips, so as a prosperous person, I make sure the waitresses and hotel housekeepers get recognized for what they have done on my behalf. 

Still, my travel is limited to a few excursions a year, mostly minor, occasionally major.  Airports are visited infrequently, maybe once a year since I retired.  A lot of people have their travel as an imposition, dependent on airport lounges and bars that I only gawk at, working on their laptops as I gaze downward over farms and towns.  My travel has become recreational, theirs is not.  My destinations never fail to generate some measure of wonder.  Even the small excursions generate neighborhoods to drive through, history to reconstruct, somebody's imagination to create the menus that I read.  And in retirement, I do this in the right amount.  I chance to be my Best Me, the Best Guest I can be.

Breakfast Where To?

No treadmill or stretch scheduled today.  No appointments.  One email invitation for late afternoon that I will tacitly decline by not responding.  And a small outing yesterday, a disappointing one at that, and two much more desirable places to be tomorrow.  No reason to get dressed today.  But these relatively infrequent blank days generally go better if I grant myself some kind of treat, either a reward for notable attainment later in the day or out for breakfast as a small reward for being fundamentally a decent person when my electronic news feeds show a deficit of honorable people.  So last night, I resolved to go out for breakfast today, even if it meant getting up at my usual time, grooming first thing in the morning and putting on the clothing I wore to my outing yesterday.  I even decided where.  When the clock radio flashed its red numerals, I dutifully got up, made coffee, outlined my day, washed as many milchig cups as I could fit onto the drying rack, then recycled yesterday's clothing.  I drove to my destination, finding it too islolated, so quickly selected a backup, where I spent a little more generously on an enhanced omelet and a slightly larger tip than I needed to offer. 

Breakfast has an interesting personal history, an offshoot of my autobiography.  Not living in a cave,  not being a hunter-gatherer with meal uncertainty, I am well aware of the expert consensus on the importance of breakfast.  It takes minutes to heat a pan and fry two eggs, a little longer to poach them.  Sometimes I have packaged hash browns in the freezer or frozen kosher vegetarian sausage links that take minutes to make.  And not that much cleanup either.  For all the Aunt Jemima controversies, I always admired her picture on the box.  She portrayed concern for the people she fed, racial stereotypes aside.  And now with Pearl Milling on the box instead, the prouct has become even easier to use.  Just mix in a 4:3 ratio with water in a coffee mug, maybe a half cup mix, stir a bit and pour into a hot oiled pan.  Flip once when bubbled, then transfer to a plate.  Pour some syrup, for which I have maple and few others at hand.  Then eat in minutes while drinking coffee.  Easy nutrition.  And when I go to the supermarket each week, some cereal is always on sale.  I get a box or two.  Yet it serves as a between meal snack.  I've not poured it into a bowl with milk in decades.  And instant oatmeal available in a variety of flavors goes on sale, can be made in minutes in a coffee mug, and eaten just as quickly.  Not bought toaster waffles in ages.  I have farina and wheatina and packages of real oatmeal and grits.  These are more tedious to make, so I rarely do, though have better sensory outcomes than the instant varieties.  And either bagels or English muffins usually occupy my refrigerator shelves, along with stuff to coat their bite surfaces.  No excuses, really, for not stacking my caloric needs earlier in the day, but I rarely do.  Instead, my fondness is for the antagonism of the adenosine receptors by coffee, most often my own as a k-cup into a porcelain mug.  Two cups worth while I sit at my screen.  Coffee in a mug is portable upstairs each morning.  In my commuting years, coffee was portable in a car, either in a paper cup from WaWa designed for the car or in one of many logo insulated mugs given to me by organizations in anticipation of or appreciation for some of my money.  And my fondness for varietal coffee tastes goes back to the 1970's when The Coffee Connection on Harvard Square or Peet's nearby offered experiences new to me.  Modern commerce and astute observers like Starbucks, K-cup manufacturers, and WaWa's knew that a lot of other people would pay a little extra to have their morning perk-up enhanced by the need to select from among taste options.  So, despite the relative eas of a caloric breakfast, my mind and later daily agenda prioritized wakefulness.  At least at home.

Having somebody else make breakfast is a whole other matter.  After a grueling night of weekend On Call during my medical residency, my first destination after signing out would invariably be Bickford's Pancake House.  All types of pancakes, multiple syrups.  I would never go there any other time.  And a pot of coffee to wash down those perfect pancakes, rarely duplicated since.  When I travel, breakfast always starts the day, whether at hotel, whether for professional or leisure travel.  Breakfast buffets ranging from packaged everything at chain motels to serious elegance at Caribbean resorts, Israeli hotels known for their arrays, or over the top cruise ship offerings each get a due measure of my time, and if more than cursory, a level of indulgence that carries me forward.  When not provided by my hotel, I seek out a pancake place mostly, though I will choose from the larger menu.  No skimping here. Omelet, hash browns, toast, coffee.  Always a big input of calories, as I will mostly not eat again until supper except for a cruise ship's day at sea when meals begin on arise and go continuously until bed time, interrupted by some aquatics.  So when I have breakfast I generally do it lavishly.  

Going out for breakfast has its home version.  While studying for my periodic professional exams, I would take my review book to one of several restaurants, bone up a bit on what I might be asked, while ordering either eggs or pancakes.  Once exams are over, I would often go out for breakfast on my days off, and when on weekend call, I would invariably break for a massive breakfast buffet across the street from the medical center where most of my effort would take place.  Occasionally the hospital cafeteria would have to suffice, though rarely for breakfast.  Over a number of years I accumulated my favorites.  Hollywood Grill a five minute drive was the default.  Coffee Station was nearest.  New places open, always tried out, others close.  Once retired, these outings drifted down to one or two a month.  And they started to include a few samplings that registered in my mind as no more repeat visits.  But those two a month or so became my most reliable breakfasts, and invariably my largest.

While I seek out breakfasts in public settings, whether my personal outings locally or as part of a travel experience, these meals rarely have a social component, though perhaps they should.  I am cordial to the waitress and tip adequately, but prefer the buffet to the menu and waitress.  For a while, my roughly weekly breakfasts at the Hollywood Grill seated me at a counter.  I recognized the waitress, her pleasant manner part of making this my preferred destination, and I came to recognize the many regulars who came each week.  I evesdropped on their banter with each other and with the waitress but never got invited into the conversation itself.  I effectively ate alone amid a crowd.  I could say this about most breakfast experiences, travel with my wife and me as a pair, breakfast locally or professional travel solo, irrespective of how crowded the buffet or commonality of purpose as at a professional annual meeting.  The exception, and not a very big exception, might be formal tours where the group assembles for the day's itinerary, but even there I usually seek out my own table, filling my plate with what I find most inviting, then letting my mind wander by itself.  On cruises, I am dining alone with my thoughts and plans, even with hundreds of others filling the tables and sampling the food at the buffet, which I invariably prefer to breakfast in the formal dining room.  There I sit with whomever the dining staff seats at my table, exchange pleasantries or maybe a comment on the ship's destinations.  But my breakfast table is not a place where thoughts, insights, or experiences transfer between people.  It is a place to sit quietly, think to myself, admire what the kitchen staff was able to assemble, and recover from the day past or anticipate the day ahead.  For as many people as may be present, breakfast from a simple bagel with homemade gravlax at home to the elegant repast of a classic Israeli hotel buffet, remains fundamentally Me Time.  A few minutes to make food choices perhaps but also time in a virtual cubicle that lacks separation walls.  

Might I do this better, or if not better, then differently?  I could take better advantage of what I already have at home.  When I go to the supermarket, I rarely target what I will have for breakfast, other than making sure I have enough eggs and perhaps deciding when I should make another pound of gravlax, which takes a few days.  Part of the barrier seems to be my treadmill schedule.  To do this without fail, I set a fixed time of 8:15, before calories other than coffee.  And this has been so successful, as it gets what I am most likely to make excuses to not do out of the way first, that I will not change the schedule.  But every third day there is no treadmill to walk.  I could target those for breakfast, two at home, followed by one away.  And after treadmill, I could eat something that takes little time or effort.

When I am out, can I take better advantage of the environment.  I prefer the open counter to a table, but even there, only the Hollywood Grill, now defunct, had an vibrant counter experience.  As I get to the other places a short drive from my home, the food really isn't that much better than what I can assemble myself.  The Country Buffet has become defunct, and I have little reason to be in that vicinity other than as a periodic platelet donor.  When I don't eat breakfast with any substance, I still have a measure of Me Time in front of my screen, checking messages, contributing my thoughts to recipients known and unknown in cyberspace.  So even if I could make breakfast more of a social experience, it would be infrequent, though more spontaneous in its interaction.  And professional travel is no more, recreational travel infrequent, and the buffets at places where I stay mostly cursory.  So my best upgrade would still be at home.  Perhaps starting with a real breakfast, the kind a dietician might recommend on the treadmill days off supplemented by two served breakfasts a month locally.  Small upgrades, both to my nutrition and my psyche.

Long Trip

Essentially allotting nearly two weeks to visit France.  Approaching the packing stage, what to take, what to leave home, what contingencies I need to anticipate.  It's been many years, probably five since my last European cruise, that I packed a large suitcase as a check-in, though for a few long drives I've put into my trunk a duffle that an airline would not allow in its overhead bin.  Rather steep surcharges deter checked baggage.  I don't know yet if I can avoid it.  On Rick Steeve's tours on PBS he tries to get his tour groups to travel light, as he does himself.  I could see if the hotel has a laundry, though not listed on its website.  I suppose if our tour moved us every 2-3 days to a different place, I'd want something I could carry, though my trip to Israel did that and big suitcases moved with us.  A baggage fee, now expected, is as good a nudge as any to be selective about what I take.  Other than my eyeglasses prescription, things needing photocopying are done.  And I have to move my spare eyeglasses from the car's center console to my backpack.  Parking documents copied, Directions to EWR parking on Waze App.  Fill gas tank before I go.  

Seasonal weather projections are about what they are at home, perhaps slightly cooler at times so some layering and long sleeve options need to be available.  Maybe only two pairs of walking shorts.  The hotel does not seem to have a pool.  It does have treadmills so include exercise shorts and a few t-shirts, my joint braces, and shoes that can go on the treadmill.  I think my usual walkers and boat shoes will suffice.  But mostly chinos, perhaps jeans, and collared polo shirts.  And I'll assume no laundry.

Tour guide and airline sent me pretrip info which I read.  For some reason my ticket has a suitcase allowance but my wife's does not.  We purchased them separately, and even adding the baggage fee, hers cost less.  Looked at the hotel's website too, and its reviews.  Hardly any mediocre reviews.  Either the guests loved it or hated it.

And some fantasies about what Paris is like.  I went out for coffee today, Panera.  Nothing quaint or elegant about Panera. At mid-morning the number of pastries on display in the case was a fraction of when I was last there.  Some breakfast souffle's in the case.  Looked a little overdone and priced considerably higher than when I last ate one pre-pandemic.  They had a few outdoor tables but as part of a strip mall, no people to watch walking by.  SF when I visited a few months ago seemed too dirty to offer outdoor seating and vagrants detracted from people watching so they didn't offer it.  I think of Paris, at least my hotel district near Champs d'Elysees and the Arc d Triomphe as having more of an urban charm.  The hotel itself seems like a mega city hotel with a breakfast buffet, more geared for a convention than reliving anniversary romance.  But it's not part of a strip mall or a cluster of places to stay off an Interstate exit.  Expect to have ample time to wander around and see how well the experience of Paris meshes with my imprint.

Still a fair number of things to do before heading there.

Travel Security

Been to some diverse parts of America these past twelve months.  Pittsburgh about a year ago.  Then Florida's Atlantic Coast as the winter solstice approached.  Two drives to NYC.  A Me session in the Poconos for two nights.  A week's travel to San Francisco and environs in early summer.  And most recently four day trips to the farthest reaches of my home state and a day of amusement at one of America's most respected amusement parks, with a couple side ventures to places nearby.  For all these visits, I had no serious concerns about my safety or the contents of my pockets, from wallet with cash, cards, and documents to keys or cell phone.  A pickpocket could have caused great disruption but prudent precautions would suffice.  On the beaches, my possessions except for $10 and phone stayed in the car or in my hotel room.  At the waterpark, I got a locker.  My appearance looked like anyone else's appearance, only clothing with home team logo giving me away.  And even there, people relocated as permanent residents often keep their hometown loyalties, so a White Sox cap or a Celtics T-Shirt would not expose somebody as a traveler.  Expensive photographic equipment probably would announce a tourist, though for all the places I've been, I didn't see many.  To be sure, while a tourist myself in the City by the Bay, the tour buses and ferries had visitors from every part of the world, but the population of SF is also from every part of the world, creating some uncertainty as to who is really a transient.  And everyone speaks my native language.  

Undoubtedly there are professional thieves in America, some taking what is not theirs as their source of income, those descendants of Dickens' Artful Dodger perhaps, and others unemployable by in urgent need of money for one of several destructive habits.  But in America, we think of criminals as violent people who in one way or another do not look like everyone else due to some element of suspicious appearance or mannerism.

With a stay in Paris on the horizon, security concerns seem very different.  I've been abroad twice before.  First I took a tour of Israel, one where a bus took the group from city to city, never staying in our hotel more than three days.  I think of Jews as fundamentally honest people, not folks who would break into your room or distract you to remove the contents of your pockets in front of an historical site.  I stayed a few days in Jerusalem beyond the tour.  They know who the Americans are but don't seem to prey on them.

About five years ago I cruised the Adriatic, starting with a few days in Venice.  I did not think much of thievery.  Certainly the cruise ship enabled possessions to be locked, staff who entered a room risked everything for themselves if they pilfered a passenger's possessions.  It was a cashless situation.  My ship ID hanging from a lanyard could be swiped for anything that would generate a charge.  That left only the ports as vulnerable places, and I experienced some.  In Venice, St. Mark's Square had crowds and European pickpockets making their living off them.  We rode a water transit which had tourists crowded with natives.  But I did not think a lot about getting victimized and ultimately did not.

Paris seems a whole other matter.  Again, we are on a tour, so I expect considerable time on a bus, yet we are not venturing far from the city and its attractions.  Museums, towers, cathedrals all attract crowds.  Moreover, many visitors tour independently.  Just the right environment for groups of pickpockets to cooperate with each other.  One chooses a target, the other distracts, the first swipes.  And so the online guides warn us.

They know who the Americans are.  We wear baseball caps with our home team's logo.  We have T-shirts with slogans or images of our hobbies.  We carry big wallets in our back pockets.  Much of the contents of my wallet I will not need.  Some euros, but not a lot.  A credit card.  An ATM card to get more euros.  I will need my driver's license to drive to the airport and home, but not while in Paris.  Library cards, park admission cards, discount cards for the stores I shop, those can stay home.  Medicare card and supplement and Rx plan I probably could just put away once I get to the hotel.  Same with keys.  Maybe take one flash drive and enough small bills to tip drivers.  And the cell phone.  But eliminating the appearance elements of an America, that's hard.  I suppose I can take a few plain t-shirts or the ones that picture the ninja turtles, but leave the team IDs home.  But that wouldn't be an authentic me.  And while I only plan to take a few shorts, there are advantages to cargo shorts with extra pockets.  Same with trousers, even though I plan to have less in my pockets in Europe than I customarily carry at home each day.

At the advice of the online guides, I purchased two cross chest carriers, one for my new camera and its accessories, the other more all-purpose, a rectangular nylon one, water-resistant, with pockets for the cards I might need, sunglasses, perhaps phone.  Distribute one card someplace else, and euro bills in two other locations with an Eagles Money Clip.  My wallet, perhaps, or a pants pocket, or maybe not even take the wallet outside the hotel.  Copy of passport in my cross chest bag in case somebody needs to ID me.  Unless somebody looks visibly Jewish with a kippah or other attire, France is not a place where violent encounters are likely, but apparently theft is.  I'll take reasonable precautions.

Semi-Annual Season

Final two weeks of my current semi-Annual initiatives.  About half settled on the next set of twelve.  

My Space upgrade will renew.  I did some, then it petered out, partly by distraction with other things, partly by inability to sustain interest, partly by a mentality of good enough as my desktop, lounge chair, big screen TV, and area to do stretching exercises were all sufficient.  Arrangements to Europe mostly complete.  In the next cycle I will go there.  Dedicated spousal attention could have been better.  That will renew.  Visited daughter.  They each visited me.  Don't think I want to go to the West Coast again in the next six months.  Could go to Pittsburgh, but not really a must-do that gets on my semi-annual projects.  Revocable Trust essentially done with a few loose ends.  In the coming year, I must take IRA distributions, so setting them up will be the obvious Financial Goal.  AKSE participation was a dud.  In fact, I conclude that my best intents were actively rejected by Influencers.  That will not be renewed as my Community initiative, though I've not settled on a replacement.  I read three books, my Self Initiative.  In fact, this is the one most likely to get completed each half-year cycle.  It is so reliable, that I have reassigned it the way I reassigned monthly expense review and gardening.  These are things that I will do anyway even if not targeted among the dozen semi-annual initiatives.  Replaced the Self component with three day trips.  I tend to do these reliably, as two trips to my state's beaches usually take place each summer.  But to have a Day Trip count, it has to include an activity that I would not otherwise do or a place I would not otherwise go.  I entertained guests as planned.  That renews as my Friends initiative, though I would like to expand the array of people I have over to newer friends or perhaps people beyond my synagogue.

My Health Goals will also renew.  Each cycle I have a conflict over whether to settle on performance goals with desired weight, waist, and BP metrics, or whether to do process goals like time and intensity on treadmill.  I opted for performance.  I submitted three articles.  That renews, though maybe to more prominent destinations.

The Frontier has been writing my legacy book.  I started.  I also began acquiring skills.  That renews with the added grit to make it happen.

Long Term was allocated to becoming more adept in my kitchen.  It didn't happen, nor were the attempts very fulfilling.  In my early 70s, Long Term isn't really that long a term.  My end of life provisions are largely set.  I still have a house that my survivors will need to deal with.  Long Term, or really what can I do in six months that plays out longer, will focus on divesting My Stuff, starting with the basement.  I have decluttered parts of it before.  Still, it contains objects that will never have a useful purpose to my wife or me, nor probably to any of my survivors either.  Clearing things out will eventually need to be done.  As much of the onus should fall to me as possible.

So that's the transition.  Community, Family, Purchase initiatives remain unsettled, but in two weeks those three boxes should be filled onto the master sheet, which can then be transferred to the black nylon pouch with pens, markers, and paper slots that I access each Sunday morning to outline the coming week in a way consistent with my aspirations for the coming half year.

Back Home

Some unpacking today.  A chance to readapt to Eastern Daylight Time.  Coffee from my own Keurig machine.  And it's a treadmill day, but later when my internal clock has reset a little better.

Travel had its fun elements. Visiting my daughter was its purpose, fulfilled.  Tourism wore me out but I can say I visited some unique places.  Stopping in at small mini-marts that were not WaWa's or having a rather large choice of which place to get something to eat brought a few moments of satisfaction, though not something I'd want every day.  I much prefer my house, with my yard, and a car that gets me where I want to go when I want to go there, though at the price of having many fewer places that I might want to go.

From the time I left my daughter's apartment until arriving at my house took about ten hours, half of it in one of those airborne cylinders, assigned to the middle seat both ways.  Tired for sure.  A little stiff.  But still remarkable to cross the American continent in that short a time.  Equally remarkable to putter around SF which attracts people from everywhere to settle on a one way ticket.

Repacking

Transcontinental Travel.  I packed but need to fully redo this.  I think of California as being warmer than my home in the mid-Atlantic.  When temperatures are integrated over the year it is.  San Francisco does not get snow.  People probably own a coat.  They may not in San Diego.  And there are beaches and surfers, though San Francisco does not get swimmers.  At home we do.  So our winters are colder, but our summers are considerably hotter, and it's not even astronomical summer yet.

I packed t-shirts and shorts.  Modern electronics has also given us weather.com. I could see the SF forecast for most of my intended time there.  It's not really summer there, while here people plan their outings at the Delaware Beaches or Jersey Shore after Memorial Day.  My destination is more a glorious spring.  Better for long pants and polo shirts with an undershirt beneath.  And layering.  I am bringing a sweatshirt and a windbreaker.  And enough socks for daily use.  All in a carry on and a backpack.