Travel While You’re Young

And Then Some Saturday Essay
by Richard L. Weaver II

We have a number of stories that make it clear why people should travel before they get too old to do so. In one case, a woman was traveling with her physically challenged mother because just since planning their “trip of a lifetime,” the woman’s father died, so she was filling in and giving her mother the trip she and her husband had planned.

My wife and I traveled with her father and mother. Her mother has difficulty walking, so we supplied a wheelchair on a cruise to the Panama Canal, and we served as helpers throughout the cruise. It was their last one as they were in their late 80s; however, without our help, they would not have been able to do it. On that cruise, they did not leave the ship.

On our Mediterranean cruise, a couple of our excursions were clearly marked “strenuous,” however, some older, physically challenged people signed up anyway. There were times when their condition held up the rest of the group, and in several instances, they could not go where the group went. Few foreign, tourist, venues are handicap accessible — and that includes bathrooms. In one instance, when the excursion ended, one physically challenged person in the front seat of the bus took the microphone from the tour guide and thanked those on the bus for their assistance at every venue visited on the tour. It was a nice gesture, of course, and people appreciated his comments, but the word “strenuous” should have led him to select another less rigorous tour.

During our two-week Mediterranean cruise there were a number of instances that underscored the suggestion: travel while you’re young.

At a 5-star hotel in Venice, the elevators were being repaired when our busload of 40 people arrived. We were responsible for transporting our carry-on bags to the fifth floor. There weren’t even enough porters to handle the influx of visitors. The hotel workers brought up our heavier, checked bags, but for a number of trips out of the hotel, we had to use the stairs.

When we had to leave this hotel in Venice, I checked specifically with the concierge service to find out who was responsible for getting our checked bags to the lobby. Because our cruise line had booked the hotel as well as our transportation to the airport, we were the responsible party. Those who cruised with us and were taking the same airport bus all lugged their bags down to the lobby, a feat that challenged us all. And none of us, fortunately, was physically challenged or too old to take on this unexpected occurrence.

On this cruise there was another instance that underscored the suggestion, travel while you’re young. Our cruise-ship company, claiming no responsibility for damaged or lost luggage, broke one wheel off my large, heavy, checked bag. This is easy to understand when you see the way bags are pushed and pulled over the metal thresholds on the ship. Without one wheel the bag is awkward and unwieldy to say the least. And, when you have two carry-on pieces, plus a fanny-pack, and a jacket, handling a handicapped bag as well is tough. Tough, but possible, of course.

There are additional reasons, too, that underscore our suggestion to travel while you’re young. For example, the entire preparation process for traveling can be exhausting. Making certain documents are in order, making certain the proper attire is packed, making sure medications are sufficient and labeled, and making certain travel arrangements are completed and correct are ample enough to test anyone, much less the elderly. These are taxing, time-intensive processes that become easier the more one travels but are, nonetheless, tiring.

Another reason is patience. I may be unusual, but my patience has become inversely proportional to my age. As I grow older, my patience decreases. Where does this reveal itself? Primarily in my tolerance for incompetence. After a cruise to the Bahamas from New York City, we returned to discover another large ship was unloading passengers at the same dock as our own. Upon picking up our car and driving down the ramp to the terminal to collect waiting family members, an attendant directing traffic revealed his incompetence. The family and the luggage was at the curb, and there was ample space to pull over and stop, but the attendant would not let me. Pointing out my family and their luggage made no impression; trying to pull over against his very clear directives to move down to the end of the pick-up area, only angered him more. Family members had to step off the curb into passing traffic and drag their bags for close to a block because of the attendant’s lack of flexibility and — in our mind — incompetence.

Yet another reason that underscores our suggestion to cruise while you’re young is crowds. My wife and I thought that by scheduling our Mediterranean cruise in October, we would avoid the notorious crowds found at attractive tourist sites during the peak cruising season — summer. Wrong. The lines in Florence to get into the Academy to see Michelangelo’s original “David,” were long, and some tour groups were unable to get in. The lines to get into the Sistine Chapel in Rome were long, but they did not match those waiting to get into St. Peter’s Basilica. The crowds at Pompeii just outside of Naples, the Acropolis in Athens, and the 45-min. to 1-hour wait to get up the cable car in Santorini, Greece, would drive some people crazy. There were crowds everywhere we walked in Venice. These were not instances that concerned us because — with the exception of Venice — we were with planned excursions with reservations and guides who knew how to help us avoid many of these crowds. But the crowds were there; they appeared in abundance; and they are worse — horrific — during the peak tourist season.

The suggestion to travel while you’re young may not help you avoid rude behavior, however. We got to the cable car at Santorini early and had staked out a position for a car going down. Suddenly, there were six people who, using their raised elbows to prevent us from entering the car, pushed in front of us, quickly boarded and sat down, then ignored us and the shock on our faces.

Exhaustion is another reason to travel while you’re young. Dramatic, six-hour time changes take their toll; adapting to new beds, new schedules, and different foods is taxing; taking excursions to see more sights and gain more information, puts a strain on the body; and leaving friends, grandchildren, homes, and yards can be trying as well.

Traveling becomes more and more difficult as you get older. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, it means weighing your options. If you can plan for and arrange to do it when you’re young, there are not only many reasons that support that decision, but the entire process of traveling becomes easier.

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