Today’s travelers are faced with many different, difficult, and expensive challenges. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we too, as travelers, need to face our worst nightmares and conquer our travel challenges. And with man’s best friend stuck in a basket, lets address some…

There are extremely high recreational vehicle fuel prices, compliments of OPEC, requiring RV owner’s to sell vital body organs to fill their tanks. There’s the even higher airline ticket pricing for sardine cattle-car seats where checked baggage and in-flight stale boxed junk food are added expenses. Seems the only thing still complimentary is the more often than not flight attendants’ sour attitudes. What’s next, require passengers to pay to get a key like at gas-stations for toilet privileges (oops, shouldn’t have spelled that one out, they may read this). And the US Dollar is so weak and worthless, the new international US One Dollars will be printed with an “N” in front of the word “one!”

Outdoor travel activities are hindered with a variety of weather related developments. Drought conditions in some states are contradicted by flooding in other states, so clothes layering is key to successful interstate traveling. Hundreds of west coast fires are creating massive amounts of choking smoke, yet oddly for unknown reasons those asthmatic conditions don’t seem to have any effect on the blood-sucking disease carrying flea, tick, and mosquito populations. Then Mother Nature tosses in allergens, poison oak, poison ivy, rattle snakes, and other assorted wild creatures that lurk in and around every trail, campsite, and picnic. Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!

Wow, almost makes one want to toss the hiking boots into the deepest darkest out-of-site spot in the closet; put the dusty luggage back in long-term storage; yard sale the camping gear; and tarp-wrap the RV and put it up on blocks. But wait, there is always an equal amount of positive to every negative; good wins over evil; a glass is half-full; the grass is always greener on the other side; and mother-in-law can’t afford to visit! Who hasn’t heard that things always gets worse before they get better. The travel opportunity of today is not that far away. So, don’t travel the long and considerably bizarre yellow brick road, “There’s no place like home.”

Did you know there’s a ton of things to see and do within just a couple hours of where you live. When was the last time you visited your own town’s visitor’s center for local activities to see and do; or taken a tour of your own city/town; or maybe created a fun weekend by visiting a town/city within a half-day’s drive…have dinner at a uniquely different restaurant, enjoy a museum or a live theater production, then stay at the local Bed &Breakfast Inn and have a relaxing brunch. Let me tell you, after taking our local town’s tour bus, I was simply amazed at how naïve I was about my own town’s history and close-by sightseeing opportunities that visitors have seen but I had not.

So don’t dwell on the negative travel aspects of today. Take a fresh new look at what is locally around you. Turn the long expensive vacation blues into short local exciting adventures. The gas tank isn’t half-empty, it’s half-full. Be positive and seek out local close-to-home discounted travel opportunities…just make it a point not to wear glittery red shoes or tell them you melted a witch when you inquire.

Aloha Kãkou (Good-Bye in Hawaiian)

Patrick Witz
Writer/Editor/Publisher/Photographer
Gold Country Families E-Magazine
A FREE Internet Travel, Entertainment, & Leisure Magazine
editor@goldcountryfamilies.com
http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com