{"id":411,"date":"2019-09-24T07:36:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T11:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/?p=411"},"modified":"2019-09-24T08:42:43","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T12:42:43","slug":"topical-tuesday-travel-tales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/24\/topical-tuesday-travel-tales\/","title":{"rendered":"Topical Tuesday: Travel Tales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hihi! How\u2019s it going guys? Today, I was given a prompt by a friend who\u2019s been helping me a lot lately when I get in a rut on what to write. I\u2019ve been having some pretty bad signs of ADD showing recently, so my doctor intends to put me on new medication that should do the work of two I\u2019m already on. That\u2019s not what this post is about though- just wanted to update you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, today\u2019s post is about travel. As many of you probably know, I went to Arizona back in mid-August to visit my boyfriend. This wasn\u2019t my first time traveling there, or even traveling to Arizona- in fact, I\u2019ve traveled a fair bit in the United States over my life. And today, I\u2019m going to tell you some tips and tales from those times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time I traveled to Arizona, I was twelve years old or so, with some of my extended family. This was a three part trip, starting in Arizona, leading to Nevada, and finishing in California. In Arizona, my most notable memory was melting in the harsh summer heat alongside my cousin. We got ice cream, but it was messy. We were too bored inside where the adults were dealing with selling one of my grandma\u2019s properties, but it was too hot to handle the outdoors. It wasn\u2019t fun, let\u2019s leave it at that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more interesting part of the trip, Nevada, was mostly just something to laugh at. You see, in Las Vegas- where we went- kids aren\u2019t allowed on the carpet of hotels because it\u2019s considered part of the casino. As my cousin closer to my age and I were being told to get off, so was my fully adult cousin with her law degree and passed bars. Why? Because she\u2019s shorter than I am, and I\u2019m not all that tall to begin with. She\u2019s so tiny that to this day she still has a kiddish air to her. I couldn\u2019t help but giggle when that happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in California, I was helping my grandparents house-sit for my wealthy aunt and her family while they were on vacation elsewhere. You\u2019d think that house-sitting would be boring, but in my case, I was also cat-sitting\u2026 and also learning minor Japanese. To practice cat and flower, as their cat\u2019s name was Daisy, I started calling her Hananeko. After two weeks of that though\u2026 Well, it took some adjusting for my aunt and cousins, as she stopped reacting to Daisy altogether! I renamed their cat in my process of practice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next story comes from when I was moving in with my youngest aunt for my last year of middle school. Like many trips before, I flew- but it was the first time I was flying alone. During this trip, I learned a lot of things. One, kids can fly alone but have to have a flight attendant keeping an eye on them regularly. And secondly, sitting next to strangers can be not just scary, but annoying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, I was dressed in a long skirt and shirt that day. I was flying from freezing New Jersey in the dead of December, so my normal clothes were usually sweatpants or long skirts or similar things. The guy who sat next to me thought it was a smart idea to ask a kid he\u2019d have to sit next to for five or six hours, \u201cHey, you\u2019re Jewish right? I can tell by the big nose and the way you\u2019re dressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I hated was technically speaking, he had been right. I was born into Judaism, but I certainly didn\u2019t practice it. I hardly believed a word of it! I didn\u2019t want to be recognized as \u2018Jewish\u2019, because he was making it sound like only Jewish girls wear long skirts. I just like skirts! I find them cozy! What about that means I have to be Jewish!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hadn\u2019t traveled much for a decade after that trip, aside from the trip when I moved back home to New Jersey that June. It wasn\u2019t until last year that I took a plane again to visit Arizona- and I learned some interesting things from that trip, along with this year\u2019s. For starter, I learned there are two kinds of \u2018Economy\u2019 seating, and different airlines treat \u2018Basic Economy\u2019 differently. United does not allow a carry-on for Basic, while American Airlines does- meaning I didn\u2019t have to have a checked bag with them, potentially. I tried it the second trip, and it worked like a charm! Other things went wrong though:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For starters, I required a wheelchair going through the airport. My legs have been getting worse lately- both from lack of exercise and my nerve problems. I still need to get them x-rayed, actually, but that\u2019s a story for another time. It wasn\u2019t bad being brought on a wheelchair to the boarding area. In fact, it was kinda nice to have help getting there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I landed, though, I found myself baffled by the layout of Phoenix\u2019s Sky Harbor airport. I ended up asking a person that worked at the airport to tell me how to get to where I needed, only to be sent in the wrong direction! I don\u2019t blame them for not getting it right though. That place is a jungle in my opinion. A crowded jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My return trip seemed a bit better. My wheelchair also got me staff members that would come check on me and offer me food, water, or to wheel me to the bathroom. They also were in charge of wheeling me onto the plane- but that\u2019s where something went wrong. See, my plane wasn\u2019t at the gate yet- a plane to Atlanta was. I\u2019d been confused by the boarding display myself, but when I noticed it said Atlanta, I had to stop her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason it bugged me, though, was because she had me show her my boarding pass. It says where I\u2019m going, and I was clearly not going to Atlanta. And she was just happy to push me onto that Atlanta plane if I hadn\u2019t stopped her. I got really lucky with my neighbor that flight though. He was a nice fellow, and helped bring my bags off the plane and out of the gate area for me while I as in my wheelchair! I was in awe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, both my flights this year were delayed by like an hour to an hour and a half: one because there was a group of 40 Israelis visiting the country as a special program, who were all very bad at the \u2018sit down when the sign says to\u2019 concept. The second was because of a bad storm in Newark, which I still felt the strength of when we got there- that rain was horrifying. I got lucky a limo driver offered me a good rate when he saw me struggling to get my bag on the escalator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what did I learn through all of this? A few things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Sometimes airports are just as confusing to staff as they are to consumers.<\/li>
  2. When traveling alone, it\u2019s Russian roulette if you\u2019ll get a decent seat neighbor or not. <\/li>
  3. Sometimes you can believe the weird person who comes up and offers to drive you home.<\/li>
  4. Don\u2019t do the above without contacting someone that you know will keep an eye out for you in case it\u2019s not a good person driving you home after all.<\/li>
  5. Kids and disabled adults are treated similarly by staff.<\/li>
  6. Airplane food has gotten way better.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    That\u2019s all I have to say today. Have you been on any trips recently? Do you have any wild or just general stories about your trips you\u2019d like to share? Whether it\u2019s advice for my next flight or a story from your own, I\u2019d love to hear it! Thanks as always, guys!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hihi! How\u2019s it going guys? Today, I was given a prompt by a friend who\u2019s been helping me a lot lately when I get in a rut on what to write. I\u2019ve been having some pretty bad signs of ADD showing recently, so my doctor intends to put me on new medication that should do…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[33,2],"tags":[111,43,127,42],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8uAZQ-6D","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}