After rolling around the country for more than four years you can assume I know a thing or two about travel. When we started this job, I didn’t. I was no stranger to airports back then but booking hotels, flights, looking for parking, looking at mileage, finding restaurants, finding fun things to do, renting cars, all of these were pretty new to me. I carry on my person an iPhone nearly every second of the day. I usually have my iPad close by. We have two Garmin GPS devices. My laptop is lightweight and powerful. I have enough technology at my fingertips to find just about anything.
When we first went on the road, neither of us had a smart phone or a gps. While I still got the job done, boy does technology make my life easier. I know how to look at hotels, their parking lots, location, and reviews to see if it’s the place we want to stay. Renting a car takes about five minutes if they are as fast as I am.
Even for someone who gets how this is done, I get intimidated from time to time. I flew into O’Hare Airport last week, an airport I’m not familiar with and got onto a bus. It was a Van Galder bus at that. This is not something I’ve ever done and was worried about timing. However as I’m navigating the airport and terminals I realized that I know instinctually what to look for in finding my destinations. I don’t have to stop to look for a sign. I felt bad for an elderly couple traveling on my flights, they got off the plane and stared around blankly not knowing where to go next. Yes, I helped them.
It may have seemed silly to look up maps of the terminals and bus station. But I’m glad I did. My flight was late. Hopped off the plane, went straight for my waiting bags, took what seemed like four elevators and a tunnel right to the bus counter. That good old Van Galder machine pulled up just then and I loaded on.
Had I needed to stop to search for signs I would have been running with my huge suitcases. Only makes the experience more strained.
All the things I didn’t know, all the things I would never have thought to learn.
***This is part of a series of posts called “Travel Tuesday“, each covering topics unique to our lifestyle***
The Roving Van Gelders 
Travel and airports have been my life for the last 34 years….it still gets me. And my GPS – Heather – there are still times we fight about the best way to get some place. It’s what makes me truely enjoy those days I can head off into the hills or across the desert without a road on the GPS and feel a little less stressed when I travel!
Sorry, SHE doesn’t even use a mobile phone! However, airports and stuff, SHE researches on the PC before travelling.