You Know I'm Serious When...

...I buy my first check-in sized luggage piece in a quarter century. Despite the crush of last minute shoppers at the mall, I visited the TUMI store a lot sooner than anticipated. I also parked Artoria beside her literal twin, but I'm sorry I couldn't snap a picture. I accidently left my phone at home. Oopsie!

I haven't traveled anywhere since 2003. For many of these past 20+ years I simply didn't have the disposable income to go anywhere, and even when I did I had no chance in hell of stuffing my former morbidly obese ass into one of those airplane seats. I always thought traveling was something I enjoyed immensely in my twenties and that was that. Now that I'm retired and so much thinner, I want to make up for lost time and get the hell out of Le Crash Pad.

Yes, I spent $1,495 plus sales tax this morning (ara, ara!) on a TUMI Alpha X expandable packing case that I fell in love with at first sight. You can't blame me after I discovered yesterday that a week long trip to London in May that includes the round trip flight and a hotel room costs less than what I spend on manga for a full year. I'm not making this up.

You probably think I'm a bougie traveler, but only the luggage is. I'm still a blue collar tough but white collar smart kind of guy at heart, and I really don't need to splurge money to have fun.

Before I can jump on a plane and go anywhere starting the second half of 2025 I'd love to take either Miku or Artoria to Palm Springs (February), Solvang (April), and Las Vegas (on a whim). 

Once my sister is done with her travels, then it's my time to shine. But where would I go? Holy hell, the list of cities is endless for a four night stay plus two travel days. Dallas. Chicago. New York. Philadelphia. San Francisco. Cheyenne. Nashville. Honolulu. Washington D.C.. I'd go to New Orleans again, but a quarter century ago I loved the place so much I almost didn't board the return flight!

If I traveled internationally, England, Japan, Australia, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Chile, Morocco, Germany. Hong Kong... well, you get the idea how long the list of destinations would be. There's so much to see and the only limitation I really have is time. 

I will discuss this with The Muse the next time we chat on the phone. Maybe it will get her ass motivated to move things forward with us? Or not. Either way I don't care. I've had some very fun escapades when traveling alone, including meeting women for, ahem, "dates"!