The Travel Bug

So I have been positively peripatetic lately, and more is to come. Wifey really, really wants to travel - her main longing is to go to China.

I have less than zero desire to go there. In this way, I am NOT my mother's son -- she wanted to go ever since she was a little girl and read Pearl S Buck's "The Good Earth." Sunny got to go -- after my Dad died. I think she might have gone a second time, but my memory has become a bit hazy.

Wifey thought the trip was going to be on. Her BFF Edna had always shown little interest in China, but then had a change of heart. The two started talking about their trip, but then Edna's husband said no -- she wasn't allowed to go without him. So much for that chance...

I really, really love it here. I have seen as many churches and synagogues as I wish to. Museums are museums. I love short trips -- especially if they involve watching the Canes play -- but really don't have a desire to go anywhere else.

Wifey is talking about Central Europe -- Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. I was with the Ds in the second two, and would go if I HAD to. Wifey is also talking about Portugal. I've never been there, but watched a Rick Steve's piece about it, and thought "Eh."

But then my bug was stirred a bit today. I watched a video of the great Jimmy Cliff, singing "I Can See Clearly Now."  It reminded me that Negril was always on my list.

Wifey and I honeymooned in Jamaica, in January of '87. All we could afford was 4 nights at Half Moon Bay, in Montego Bay. I loved Jamaica, and wished I could stay longer.

On the Air Jamaica flight home, I sat next to a fellow, from the Midwest. He had a Panama hat, and was the picture of chill. He told me he had sold a business in, I think, the Twin Cities, and just spent two weeks in Negril. He went on and on about the place -- it was the best place he had ever been, and he had traveled the world. I never forgot that guy, and his tales planted a seed that still grows, albeit slowly, in my travel center.

Wifey never wants to return to a place she has already been, although she has never been to Negril. I have a feeling she won't share my enthusiasm.

But I guess it's healthy that I at least want to go SOMEWHERE that doesn't involve friends' events -- like the upcoming trip to Sonoma, for Ken and Joelle's anniversary, or the trip to D. C. for my nephew Scott's graduation.

Speaking of travel -- I watched the fire at Notre Dame the other day. It was sad -- an old building burned down. But the comments on social media were akin to a major loss of human life. Por Favor!

I mean -- I was sad when they knocked down the Orange Bowl, and my Canes won FOUR rings there, as opposed to zero championship games for Notre Dame Cathedral. But it's a building -- and last time I read, the Catholic Church was worth many billions -- seems like they can afford to restore place.

Our local satiric site the Plaintain said all the FB posts were peoples' way of saying "I visited France."

Also in the news, a Miami girl obsessed with Columbine flew to Colorado and bought a shotgun. It's almost the 20th anniversary of that shooting.  Everyone thought she was planning a reprise of the shooting. Instead, she just shot herself, not too far from the school. Alas -- why can't all of these people do it that way -- instead of killing innocents first.  As a wise friend once said -- too bad murder suicides can't be suicides first.

So we'll see about the travel thing. First thing's first: a short trip tomorrow to Shorecrest, to D1's suegras, for Passover. There'll be singing, drink, laughter, and loving togetherness. Who needs to travel far for that?