JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I planned to write about traveling today, since my trip to join the Sailor and Veronique for her graduation involved the Maine Millennial, Youngest and I driving to the Portland Transportation Center, taking a (very nice) bus to Logan Airport, flying to DC, renting a car, and driving from Alexandria (borrowed an inflatable bed from my sister) to Norfolk.
And then, of course, we did it all over again in reverse, fitting in an actual short visit with my sister on the return end. If we had managed to fit in a train ride and a ferry, we would have hit every form of possible travel, excepting ocean liners and the SpaceX Falcon 9.
But... everything went too smoothly! We arrived at every stage with plenty of time to spare. There were no traffic snarls or overbooked flights. (At least not for us. If you were going from Boston to Pittsburgh the same time we were headed for DC, you had the chance to give up your seat for $900. Victoria said, "I''m switching my flight to Pittsburgh.")
The bus was full, but not so full that the girls couldn't sit together, and although we had to wait almost a half hour to sign out our rental car, we got an upgrade, so I had zero complaints. We found bathrooms and rest stops and places to quickly buy good food with no difficulties. In fact, as I type this, I find myself waiting for the other shoe to drop. It all went so suspiciously well.
So now I'm left with no comical disaster stories about my trip. Instead, I'll just comment on how lovely it is to travel with adult children. They are old enough to watch the bags, pay for some of the meals, and take a turn behind the wheel. And since I don't live with them anymore, the inevitable stresses of the journey are well compensated by the chance to talk and laugh together. We're all close enough so I can explain why I'm skipping dairy, but they have different enough lives that we can have really interesting conversations. (My age-mate friends and I tend to talk a lot about retirement plans.)
I saw young families with small kids in tow or babies in carriers, and I wanted to go up and tell them, "It won't always be like this. You won't always be hauling enough gear to climb Mount Everest. You'll be able to read on the plane instead of spending all your time keeping your infant quiet. Instead of filling your bag with healthy kids' treats, you can have one or two things you enjoy. Although they won't have any dairy, because you will have become lactose intolerant."
Dear readers, do you have any good, event-free travel stories to share? And have you had the pleasure of making a trip with former kids-turned-great companions?
