When I travel I usually travel with a couple of friends. My kids refer to us as the ‘Golden Girls.’ I am not sure which one of us is Dorothy, Blanche or Rose because we really do not fit the molds but we are golden and we are girls, so to speak.
Over the years we have had our ups and downs with traveling. We always have fun no matter what but aging does get in the way sometimes.
“The meeting place.” We split up and do different things so we make a time and a meeting place. Three ladies hear or remember it three different ways. Then add aging memories and you have three different places and three different times.
Tip 1: always carry a cell phone.
Tip 2: always have it on! “Reach out and touch someone” becomes a necessity after 50.
“Luggage.” We are all guilty of packing too much stuff. I try to cut back and live by the motto “all states have Laundromats.”
Tip 3: packing lighter saves a lot of back strain and a lot of space in the compact rental car. It is hard to appreciate the scenery when it is your turn in the back seat and suitcases are piled so high they are blocking the windows.
Tip 4: we now have matching rolling duffle bags and rolling back packs, whatever fits in, can go. Of course there are always a few tote bags and a cooler that slip in there somehow.
Tip 5: carry a pencil and small tablet in your purse. I cannot stress this enough. When you get out of your rental car that looks like all the others immediately write down where you parked your car. On a trip to Nevada we parked the car in a hotel parking deck for several days. After packing our luggage and us into the crowded parking deck elevator I heard someone ask, “What floor?” We looked at each other dumbfounded. The discussion went on to the number of the level and the color of the signs green, orange, three four so quickly I said five please to end the undecidedness.
When we got off, we continued the discussion. We left one person with the luggage and the other two took a floor walking up and down the aisles in the 116 degree heat. After about an hour of this I turned the opposite direction of where we thought the car was and there it was, our cloned rental car, hiding behind the same red truck where we had parked it. I drove down, picked up the other two “girls” and we threw the luggage in and drove to the next destination, a two hour drive. We arrived, unloaded and my backpack with my clothes and essentials for the night was nowhere in sight. After a few phone calls, we found out that we left it sitting in the middle of the parking garage. A security guard found it and kept it safe until we could drive back to pick it up. We still laugh about it.
