My history with travel begins before my memories – I can’t remember ever having a time in my life that I didn’t travel. When I was a girl, it was generally criss-crossing the country as we drove (and sometimes flew, oh glorious day) to see grandparents in Southern California and Jacksonville, Florida from our homes in Chicago, New Jersey, and then metro Atlanta. This was in the 70’s and 80’s before handheld devices and portable TV’s so I spent endless hours spotting license plates, playing 20 questions, and keeping my big brother from leaning on me ☺️. During these years I got a lot of the United States under my belt (I’m currently at 48 states), and I learned that even if you don’t have a lot of money you can travel.
Some background on our financial situation – my dad always worked for nonprofits and my mom, a trained teacher, stayed home with us when we were little. She then got back into teaching once we settled in Georgia. For many years we lived on one nonprofit salary and that meant lots of beans and rice, not a lot of extra material things, and creative ways to take these many trips.
My History with Travel in the US
Due to a job transfer, we lived in New Jersey, about 30 minutes out of New York City for just over a year. No one in my family was thrilled about the move (or the job) so my Dad decided to make the most of our time by traveling many weekends. I remember the big ship in Boston, the liberty bell in Philly, and beautiful leaves in Maine and New Hampshire. We went to Washington D.C. five times that year. My parents seemed to know someone everywhere we went so we typically stayed on people’s couches and guest rooms. Occasionally much to my brother and my delight, we would stay in a motel. These often had mirrors on the ceiling and it was a real treat when my dad would put a quarter in the little machine to make the bed vibrate, lol – they even let us jump between the beds. We ate lots of sandwiches and sometimes McDonalds. However for my family, travel, probably from necessity, wasn’t about food but about seeing the world as much as we could.
My First International Trip
My history with travel includes many international trips. The first one was to Panama when I was 11. My mom’s sister’s family was stationed there and my Aunt was having her 4th baby. My grandparents paid for the plane tickets for my mom and me to go down and help for a month. We stayed mostly on the Navy base with it’s big pool, bowling alley, and snack bar (I remember eating so many fries!), but we did spend some time in Panama City. Going into little shops and hearing something other than English spoken all around me left a definite impression. If my Aunt, new baby in tow, could navigate this strange place, then so could I.
My Second International Trip
My second international trip was the result of my dad literally saving his pennies. For years he would put his change in a special jar every night and when filled would roll and stash them in the attic. The summer I turned 13 we finally had enough for the 4 of us to fly to London. We stayed with my grandmother’s first cousins (that’s my 1st cousin twice removed if your wondering) in a suburb of London for several weeks. We traveled into London each day using a prepaid travel pass on the tube. This meant that instead of taking the train into London which would only take about 30 minutes, we had to travel by bus to the nearest tube station in Richmond which took two to three times as long. We certainly had more time than money and I knew nothing different. We would get up early, pack a lunch, and be in London by 9 or 10 AM when museums started to open. London is full of so many FREE wonderful places to enjoy so we spent hardly anything.
During this vacation, we did take some longer overnight trips using the train with my mom and brother including Wales and York, England. This was before the advent of Airbnb, so we stayed in youth hostels and Bed and Breakfasts. When my dad was over with us on his two weeks off from work, we rented a car and drove all the way to Inverness, Scotland where we stayed in a castle that had been turned into a Youth Hostel. It never got fully dark we were so far north. My mom actually had someone throw a shoe at her in the middle of the night because we were in a women’s dorm and she snored!
We ended the trip with a week long coach tour (that’s a bus to us Americans) where we went to 7 countries in 6 days. Other than getting 7 more countries under my belt I just remember being hungry (the tour included breakfast and dinner each day but we were pretty much out of money so other than smuggled rolls and cheese from breakfast we skipped most lunches) and car sick and my mom having lots of fun with the rest of the tour group. In my mom’s defense, this was well before the internet and she had relied on a travel agent who had recommended the trip without lot of details. The benefits of Trip Advisor and Google Reviews for traveling today!
Even though I remember being bored, sometimes too hot or too cold, and occasionally hungry, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. I met people who thought differently than me, ate food I had never heard of, and visited places that were hundreds and hundreds of years old. Those adventures with my family are irreplaceable. I learned that budget should never be a barrier for International travel. As an adult I value those weeks of true vacation but I also yearn for trips exploring new places. Thus my history with travel continues…
