My father is 75. I won’t go into my personal history with him, but we’ve never been best buddies. He’s improved a lot over the last 20 years, and I do love him.
He’s had some health problems and gotten a little depressed, and talked a few times like he not only doesn’t expect to be around in five years, he doesn’t want to.
But a week or so ago I had probably the most positive conversation we’ve had in years. He was extremely excited and I was very happy for him.
You see, he’s leaving this week for a Trip Around The World, landing on all six continents (you can’t really go to Antartica without a lot of other preparations, and it’s not like there’s anything to see). He’ll spend a couple of hours here, an overnight there, a couple of days in Europe, etc. One of my big things in our conversation was to make sure that, at his age, he was actually going to get off the planes and stay here and there so that he could move around and not get blood clots leading to a stroke from being a sardine for several days. Thankfully, he had already worked that out.
My mother worked for and retired from one of the airlines, so they get really cheap passes. Because they are passes, none of his itinerary is carved in stone. They’re “seat available”, which means if the plane fills up with paying customers, he gets bumped and has to find another flight. He’s got a couple of alternative routes lined up, so clearly he’s been working it out for some time.
So hurray for him, to get to do something like this and to do it on his own without anyone else.
I have flown “space-available” a lot (I suppose you have too, with a Mom who was in the industry) and it’s usually pretty easy to get to where you want to go if you do your homework and know the routes, especially if you are willing to be flexible and go with the flow.
Hopefully Dad is going to be on a lot of 1/2 full flights, and will therefore be invited up to ride in 1st Class, as befits an elder adventurer on an epic journey.
Does your Dad know how to use Priceline, Hotwire or Hotels.com to get bargains on a room?
That’s awesome! Sounds like a great trip; wish I could do it!
When I was in the UK last year I met a couple in their 60s or 70s that had just come home from such a trip - they’d been gone for months, and were already planning on another trip, simply because of all the stuff they hadn’t managed to see on the first trip! It was pretty awesome to hear them talk about how excited they were about it.
I’ve always found travel essentially depressing because people are the same everywhere, and it’s expensive. But if he has the money and the time, why not?
