Traveling again, I'm ready.

Why is it that when you can't do something, it's all you want to do?  Right now all I think about is taking a road trip to the Eastern Sierras, to Bishop, Tom's Place, Lone Pine, Convict Lake and the list goes on and on.  But no. Not now.  Get those thoughts out of my head!

For years my friend Tom and I traveled as much as we could.  The Tuesday after Thanksgiving we would fly to Europe for two weeks.  Around January 15 we would do it again.  Some of our journeys were pre-Euro and the value of the dollar was very high so the expenses were quite reasonable.  (A lovely hotel in Paris was around $40.00 US.) After a few years of double trips to Europe we cut it down to one, but we usually went someplace else after our Europe excursion:  Michigan, Wisconsin, Death Valley, New York, Montreal, Chicago.....  we traveled!  Counting small countries like Vatican City (its own country) and San Marino (nestled in Italy) and Andorra (between France and Spain) I can truthfully report that I have stepped foot in over 20 countries.  One of those was just an airport stop but all the rest were at least an overnight, (with the exception of the three minuscule countries mentioned above, those were a drive-through) and most were more than one night.
And most of them were with Tom.

My mind is flooded with images right now. The tiny island of Lipari, off the coast of Sicily, the gorgeous Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal, the long train ride from Vienna to Venice that ended with both of miserably sick in Venice, fevers, hallucinations, mysterious disease.  So many meals in Italy, many in tiny places with no English spoken, one in Sienna that was memorable: snow falling outside, a cinghiale ragu, an incredible bottle of red wine.  The best bolognese in Bologna, lamb tagine in Tunis.  Getting drunk on a night train from Paris to Bologna, sitting in so many windows of hotels drinking red wine. Driving through fields of lavender in the south of France, dealing with frozen windshield wipers on the way to Rothenburg, Germany, driving in a blizzard in the south of Italy, unable to see the road, snow blind, hands gripping the wheel.  Seeing fireflies for the first time at the age of 40 something after a Friday night fish fry in Wisconsin. In Istanbul, the call to prayer, the sanctity of the mosques, the best oranges I have ever eaten bought from a street vendor. On my own, dodging scooters in Vietnam and eating pho for the first time in a local Hanoi cafe. Crossing the bridges in Lyon, sitting in outdoor French cafes, staring out so many windows at so many cityscapes.

It will be a while before I get on an airplane again but as soon as we get a green light, I will be in my car driving. I want to feel that hot Eastern Sierra wind in my face this summer, smell the heat of the sage in the desert. To see new places and revisit the old ones. I'm ready.

.