Travel Observations and Revelations

By Stephanie Pericich

Do you always end up sitting next to passengers with colds or flu on crowded flights? Do you amaze even yourself with your inane utterances on long road trips? Do you smile smugly as you recall a travel deal that you scored ten years ago? If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, you will be able to relate to this compilation of travel anecdotes intended to amuse and inspire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephanie Pericich
• Release date: Jun 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310046322

Stephanie Pericich

Stephanie Pericich is an independent author of non-fiction and poetry. A graduate of The College of William and Mary (B.A.) and Kansas State University (M.S.), she enjoys singing, traveling and watching movies with happy endings. Stephanie resides in Missouri with her husband and son.

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Travel Observations and Revelations

By Stephanie Pericich

Copyright 2014 Stephanie Pericich

All Rights Reserved.

Smashwords Edition

Introduction

Do you always end up sitting next to passengers with colds or flu on crowded flights?

Do you amaze even yourself with your inane utterances on long road trips?

Do you smile smugly as you recall a travel deal that you scored ten years ago?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you will be able to relate to this compilation of travel anecdotes that range from lighthearted to ironic, with a dash of personal philosophy thrown in for good measure.

To be clear, I am an occasional traveler, meaning that many people have traveled more frequently than I, and to more exotic destinations. But my hope is that these stories will cause you to chuckle as you re-live your own travel adventures and inspire you to embark on new adventures-- and maybe even to see travel in a slightly different light.

Chapter 1: Misunderstandings are Understandable

Thank goodness I am able to laugh at my own mistakes because it keeps me endlessly entertained. It started at an early age. My memories of early childhood are generally fuzzy, but I distinctly remember a road trip with my mom and dad when I unknowingly flipped the bird to a driver on Highway 64/40. Apparently, Dad had somehow managed to irritate this gentleman, and the driver saw fit to give my dad The Finger as he passed us on the left.

As an eager-to-learn five-year-old, I was thrilled to have a new greeting in my repertoire, so I enthusiastically returned The Finger to the instigating driver. The look on his face was priceless, and inspired me to try out my new greeting on other cars as they passed. I’m not sure how many cars received my greeting before Mom and Dad became wise to my activity, but I do recall their long explanation about how what I had done was very impolite and that I should never do it again. And I haven’t…at least as far as they know.

You Say Ganja, I Say Gonzo

This story has nothing to do with being impolite and everything to do with being naïve. When my husband Paul and I were dating but not yet engaged, I was fortunate enough to win an all-expense paid trip to a resort in Negril, Jamaica from a local radio station. The only catch was that the July itinerary was set in stone and we had no choice in the matter. It just happened to be the July that Hurricane Emily unleashed her wrath on the Caribbean, skirting Jamaica before pounding the Yucatan Peninsula.

On the day that we embarked on our journey, Emily was a tropical storm tracking away from Jamaica, so we felt fairly confident in our decision to go ahead with the trip. But no sooner did we arrive than Emily changed for the worse, quickly becoming a hurricane-- and a powerful one at that.

The resort went into a storm preparation frenzy, going so far as to remove every last light bulb from the lobby light fixtures. We were told that we would have to spend at least one full day in our rooms, preferably in the bathroom. (Not that being elsewhere in the room would have been all that much more comfortable, as we were also told to place our mattress against the balcony glass door.) Although Emily ultimately became a Category Five hurricane, she passed to the south of Jamaica. The area surrounding our resort endured heavy rain and ocean whitecaps, but little else.

At the time, I worked as a project lead in disaster recovery/business continuity, and DR/BC is all about preparing for disasters such as hurricanes in an effort to keep businesses resilient. Certainly, I knew how to interpret NOAA hurricane tracking data, thus venturing into the vicinity of a major storm was not naïve, but rather a calculated risk that could have gone terribly wrong. The naïve part happened well in advance of the