I got lots of traveling to do! I need to make this whole thing ‘green’!
Jul 272011
Apr 292011
As I make plans for my trip to Australia in June, I find myself thinking … Thinking about how I’m 49 years old and have never been anywhere by myself. All of the times that I have traveled somewhere I was either with someone, or going to meet someone.
Through the years, I have met various people who have told me of one adventure or another. Some went backpacking to Europe, stayed on hostels, and lived off of their credit card for a year right after they graduated from college, figuring that the time right after college would be the only time that they would ever get to do such a thing.
So, here I stand, age 49, having never traveled that far afield alone, about to embark on a journey of 12,000+ miles. Almost literally half way around the world. When I land in Sydney, Australia, on approximately June 26th, I will know absolutely no one. Sure, Cedric will be there, some 982 Km and 11 hours by car to the north and, if I’m lucky, and he doesn’t have to swim down from Brisbane, I’ll get to meet him. I wonder if I could drive 982 Km on the left side of the road! LOL. I’ll leave the driving to the Aussies!
Sometimes, I think: Man! It’s going to be great, but I will really have to make it such. I’ll need to be out and about meeting, greeting, talking, and having a good time. It’s not likely that I’ll hole up in my room. I have no plan other than what the travel agent will provide. I told her that I needed round trip air, transportation to and from the airport, and a nice, clean place to stay near public transportation. No need for 4 and 5 star hotels.
This is a really exciting time, but also just a little bit scary … only because it is so foreign to me, no pun intended. Maybe when I go I can have a meet-up with some Aussie photographers and they can show me around. The sky’s the limit!
Any tips from seasoned veterans of solo world traveling are appreciated. 
Mar 312009
These are strange days. I don’t think that since I’ve been married, nearly 17 years, that we as a family have been so distant from each other. I, of course, am in Summerville, SC. My wife had to travel to Brazil because of her mother’s surgery. My son, Pedro, is still in Ohio. Tony is in Dallas, NC, staying with friend that he goes to school with.
My wife will be gone for 3 weeks and will return on April 20th. Hopefully, Pedro will make it down from Ohio by the end of this week so that at least he and Tony can be together at home. In the mean time, Hobbs is with me. The folks at my apartment were very kind and said that I need not put down a deposit or anything since he is just visiting. I just could not see boarding him for 3 weeks. It would kill me!
Hobbs is not very much a traveler. He starts to whine a lot when you get him into the car. I think that this is because, formerly, when he got into the car, it meant that he was going to get boarded or go to the vet. Sunday, he had to ride with me down to Charleston, about 3.5 hours. I tried to make it as pleasant for him as possible by placing his crate in the backseat and letting him ride in there. For the most part, he was cool with that. After a restroom break and some water, he came to the front seat, sat there, looked out of the window, finally laid down and went to sleep briefly. Some minutes later, he climbed into the backseat, went into his crate and slept for the next 2 hours.
When we arrived, I took him for a short walk of about 30 minutes. On Monday morning, we had another 30 minute walk. Last evening, Monday evening, we started our training. Hobbs is a great dog with a cool personality, but sometimes he thinks that he is the boss. My fault for not playing the role of Alpha dog religiously/consistently. After a very brief time on the leash and the training collar, he got the message and was very pleasant indeed. We walked for about and hour, then came back for some off-leash time, which he really deserved. Of course, I had to get my camera and take some pictures of my student!
The sun was shining through a very thin layer of clouds and made such a beautiful diffuse light that I couldn’t resist. As he was in a very attentive mode/mood, the photos were pretty easy to take. All I had to do was tell him to “sit” and then walk away and shoot. Rarely did he get up. I’m very proud of him.
I had to laugh because I remember seeing people stop along the highway to pose their children and dogs in the Bluebonnets when I lived in Texas and I remember thinking: “How cliche’”. Well, these aren’t Bluebonnets, but … LOL!
It’s nice having him here, even if he is just visiting!
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