October Brings The Travel Bug
October is many Texans favorite month. It’s an outdoor month finally, with football, hunting, barbecues, and the State Fair.
It’s arguably also the best travel month for big trips with the masses of families and students back to school, reduced tourist prices, and most importantly pretty, nice weather the world over.
So on a whim, I’m going to see the trifecta on my waterfall list, the Iguazu Falls, having visited the majesty of Niagara and Victoria. This is a self-scheduled solo trip I booked in three days with help on the internet. What could go wrong?
Just getting a ticket on American Airlines using miles was the first hurdle. As anybody who flies knows, airline miles are impossible to use unless you go in steerage at odd hours to unpopular destinations. Got reclining exit, best I could do.
American has been excoriated with its flight delays due to the conflict with its unions, not only flight attendants and pilots but most notably the mechanics. I gave myself a cushion of two days in Buenos Aires to get over the flight and see the Paris of Latin America.
To find a hotel I just looked at where the high-end cruise ships booked.
My itinerary involves two different airlines in different airports; three different hotels and then I’ll need transfers to and fro. What are the odds of this trip going seamlessly? Maybe 1%? Will my bag get lost? A flight canceled? Will the hotels be amenable?
Alone can I manage to hang on to my phone, passport, money, tickets, meds, and bags? Plus, I don’t speak Spanish.
I’m going to try to live for nine days with one carry-on bag and a backpack purse. I may indeed look like the ugly American, but I don’t take selfies so who cares? (Packing lots of scarves.)
When I return, I hope to have witnessed one fabulous spot in creation, seen another culture in a different hemisphere where it will be spring, and instead of the Big Dipper, gaze at the Southern Cross. If I wait for a couple of friends or the correct tour, this desire may wane.
It happens with age. It will be a little like going through labor. The baby will be the falls, and just like in childbirth, I hope the labor recedes.
Maybe next year I’ll just go see the fall foliage in New England.
