TRAVELING ALONE IS A CHALLENGE….FOR THE FAMILY

How does a single person travel alone?  That is the question.  The answer?  Let me count the ways.

Before I die, I want to see more of the United States.  I got a taste of what this country possess when I traveled out to the Grand Canyon with my daughter, and Seattle when I headed up to Alaska and the trip across the Canadian Rockies.  To say it wet my appetite to see more is an understatement.  

But how to travel in today’s world safely, as a single, 68 year old women, is the question.  I have searched the internet for ideas.  I would love to have a travel partner(s) but sending the call out to the world has not enticed anyone to step out and say, “I’ll go with you”, so I must take the bull by the horn and make a plan. 

After searching all the possibilities, I have decided to see what I want to see by train.  I had a taste of a long distance train ride once when I had to take a trip to Raleigh in an emergency.  I was thrilled with how enjoyable the ride was.  I could get up and walk around, go to the diner car, strike up a card game with strangers (I carried a deck of cards), and relax in the lounge seats provided by my first class ticket.

The web sites I have searched about train traveling in the US look very interesting too.  Observation cars are provided in areas where the scenery is special, sleeping cars are available where the travel through the night is the best bet, and hotels and rental cars are available in all the major stops.  Sounds like a plan.

To begin, I could take some close-to-home trips by heading up into the Northeast, an area of the country that is totally new to me.  I long to see the East Coast shoreline above NYC, up into Maine and into Nova Scotia.  I could train it as far as I can go, rent a car, explore the area, stay as long as I like and then return to the train and hop home again.  To answer the concern of the family worries about me wondering around out in the world alone, I could just  text them along the way (when phone service allows), do a daily travel blog, and phone home just like E.T.

Oh let the dreaming begin…