Taking off

I am trying to travel more.

It goes against my frugal sensibilities to travel, seeing as it means a bunch of eating out, a bunch of gas-use (or worse - plane tickets), and paying to sleep in a bed when I'm already paying the mortgage on my house.


For the several hundred dollars it takes to even do a weekend trip away for my husband and me, we could have a new piece of furniture, or if we saved two trips worth, a new refrigerator, or maybe just pay another bill off to climb further out of debt.

I don't justify travel well. It's indulgent, and we can't afford indulgent.

But this is an area where I'm trying to adjust my thinking, where I am trying to be nicer to myself. I'm 37, and there's a lot of this country I haven't seen. The only foreign country I've ever been to is Mexico. I've never even been to Canada. CANADA, people!

And, this is not okay. It's important for Todd and I to get away together once in awhile. Later, it will be important for Johnny to travel with us, to see places other than our little corner of Kansas. Richness of experience, and all that.

We're not hopping on a plane to Turks and Caicos anytime soon, but that's not the kind of travel I'm really talking about, anyway. I'm talking about going to the top of the arch in St. Louis, and taking in a show at The Grand Ole Opry. I'm talking about climbing Pike's Peak, and eating a famous sandwich in Philadelphia. I want ride a trolley in San Fransisco and go to the big mall in Minnesota. Or take in a Braves game in Atlanta and fish in a river in Montana.

I might never get that new couch. I might have to live with my rickety refrigerator for a very long time. I'm readjusting my values, and therefore my budget. I'll keep you posted on how it goes and how I grow, one city at a time.