"WHERE'S YOUR NEXT TRIP?"

That is a question that Lou & I have become accustomed to happily answering. Our family, friends & acquaintances know that we love to travel & take every opportunity we can to explore our world. Often times we’ll have a couple of trips in the works. Sometimes I think I enjoy the planning almost as much as the actual travel.

I just counted & over the almost thirteen years that Lou & I have been together, we have taken 40 “big trips”. I define “big trips” as those which are five days or longer & are outside of California or Nevada. If you include those two states, the number reaches into the hundreds.

Unfortunately, we have both been asked the “where’s your next trip” question several times in the past few weeks & have had to answer, “Sadly, we don’t have anything planned.” That is due to the fact that we both have elderly parents with numerous health & medical issues.

My father has been fighting poor circulation in his foot that has resulted in six hospitalizations since December of last year currently culminating in a partial foot amputation. Both my sister & I live 100 miles away which makes it difficult at best. I joke that I’m the “DIC” – “Daughter In Charge”.  The day before our last trip to the Super Bowl in late January, he landed in ICU with severe bleeding ulcers from a new blood thinner. Since his life was not in imminent danger, I headed off for New Jersey with his blessing leaving my sister as the “DIC”. She did a great job & I was ready to hand it over permanently but she has adamantly refused!

Even though all of these issues may likely get worse as time goes on, I told Lou we HAVE to get a trip planned! We each literally have a travel list so we started throwing out ideas. It had to be a trip within the United States on Southwest Airlines since they don’t have change fees if we needed to postpone it. We would make hotel & car reservations that are all cancellable. That way we aren’t out any money if we have to change everything.

A couple of days ago as I read the morning newspaper an article in our Sacramento Bee jumped out at me. “Hmmmm!” I exclaimed, “Here is a big article about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Tower in Racine, Wisconsin opening for tours.”

“Really?” Lou’s ears perked up as he replied. That is the last big design of Wright’s that we haven’t yet seen. It was only open for tours one Saturday a month but the tower has been recently renovated & will soon be open daily.

Awhile later after he read it, Lou said, “Maybe we should plan a trip to Wisconsin.” There are several Wright designed homes in the area including an impressive one that is also open for public tours. Our experience has always been that we find way more to do than we have time for wherever we go & I’m sure this one will be no different.

I hopped online & checked the Giants schedule to see if we could work a trip around seeing them play the Milwaukee Brewers. We can! They will play in early August so we are happily planning a week long jaunt to Wisconsin. It is Lou’s job to find all the places we want to see & I do my best to fit them all in. This is the part of being a travel agent that I loved!

So, please, go ahead & ask me, “Where’s your next trip?”

My answer will be, “We’re going to Wisconsin in August to see some more Frank Lloyd Wright sites & the Giants play the Brewers!”

Even though parts of my life may be spinning out of control, at least our travel plans are back on track! That makes things a little more right with my world – & time with my Charley Ellen, of course.