Is it just me, or is the traveling public on the verge of a collective nervous breakdown?
When I talk to friends about travel, many openly tell me "it just isn't worth it anymore".
When I press them, they recite the usual stuff: TSA screeners are rude, planes are even more uncomfortable, hidden costs abound, hotel bedbugs are ready for a meal, and terrorists lurk behind every corner.
Sadly, that may all be true.
And as I sit here in the Salt Lake City airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year, I sort of find myself questioning my travel addiction.
Then boom! My e-mail pings with my weekly edition of the Travelzoo Top 20. In there I find a 12 day Mediterranean Cruise on Celebrity at about $62 a day, round trips to Ireland at less than $400 RT, and cirque shows in Vegas at $47.
I start immediately thinking, hmmm.........Mediterranean cruise eh?
Then I look around the airport waiting area and see a tired college kid in a knit cap obviously going home for Mom's Turkey Dinner, service people going somewhere (my prayers go with them), high schoolers playing grab ass, little kids with light up sneakers, and someone's grandparents looking strangely excited - yet perplexed.
And it all comes home why I travel.
I love being out of my comfort zone. If I get stuck in a record storm, well it will be another page for the scrap book.
I love people watching. I know that for every rude person I meet, I will meet two wonderful people. I love the chance to strike up conversations with people I otherwise never would have met.
So, while there may be an increasing number of really good reasons for rational people to stay home, none can outweigh my wanderlust.
Just beyond that hill, just over that mountain, and just one street over is something I've never seen and people I've never met.
Pardon me while I go off and plan my next trip.
Happy Thanksgiving from Roadboy!
Roadboy's Travels © 2010
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