MelissaH, I am sorry but your post has me laughing (which I just read today is very good for the heart) so thank you!

I laughed because you sound like you are not too many years out of HS, but all your friends are married and settled down, right?

Well just wait dear one until you are older. Then you can keep a journal regarding your friends horrors and panic attacks regarding your trips.

I lost my DH. Eight months later I went to Italy for several weeks - oh horrors! Can you imagine?? Bet you can.

And in a little over three weeks I am flying out of state to stay (and do a sidetrip) with a beautiful friend I met here on Fodors. She and her husband invited me to their city and home and I accepted and purchased my airline ticket. Well, guess what - a few friends have looked at me with that look of horror! Too funny!

So while friends have a nervous breakdown and bite their nails, how about the rest of us just keep on traveling and seeing the world. And feel sorry for those that will not venture out and discover what is over the horizon.

ha ha! Oh, LoveItaly, I'm actually 20 years out of high school. One of my English teachers there told me about how she blew her life savings and traveled the world before she got married, and was happier for it. I decided to do that, and since I never got married I haven't stopped traveling. :)

My friends are all married and settled, and for some reason over the years their worlds have gotten so tiny! It's my hope that in another 20 years, there will be men in this world who will reminisce about me in grand stories to the more domestic woman on the other side of the hearth.

cheers LoveItaly!!!

p.s. have a great trip!! Is this a Fodors GTG?

Oh Melissa, I would imagine one of these days you will find a wonderful man who is as interested in the world as you are, and the two of, you many years from now will be sitting in front of the hearth reminiscing about your various world travels. And when it happens, remember, I told you so!

And no dear one, not a Fodors GTG. A visit with a beautiful friend I have made via Fodors. Someone like you, who likes to enjoy the world. She has had many beautiful trips on her own. Our kind of woman!

I just sat and slowly read all the post on this wonderful thread. Thank you for starting it Audreyh! For some reason I never saw it before. All the post are fantastic.

So maybe the world is divided by two. Those that have to travel and those that do not want to.

Happy trips to all of you!

Enjoy, I am currently planning a trip to Chattanooga, I am sure I will get the same repsonses from some of my friends.

I, too, misssed this thread - and it's so much fun. I live in the suburbs of Phila, not a small town (although I grew up in a small city where no one moves away), and it's amazing the reactions I get from some people about our travels.

The most amazing is that so many people cannot believe I go up to NYC by myself. I drive to the train and take the train in, explore the city and then come home. They act like I am negotiating the streets of some foreign god-forsaken place. (Which I guess to them, NYC is, which is a shame b/c we are sooo close!) Another person expressed surprise that I have flown by myself.

Our family vacations blow some people's minds, b/c we often fly out west and then do a lot of driving in between some places, which means we have to stay in a different motel sometimes every night. Some cannot imagine going someplace and NOT staying in one place the entire time.

Y-day a co-worker of my husband was asking us questions about a CO trip we've taken. My husband told me I could be a travel agent and help people plan their vacations. The problem is, many people don't want to travel like us. I can just see it: You want to go back to Orlando/Vegas and stay in the same place you did the past 5 years? Uh, why? Zzzzzzzz.

I remember the first Portland, OR trip we planned. I was so excited to be able to see the waterfalls of the Columbia Gorge, the Oregon coast and Crater Lake. I'll never forget the derision I heard in the voice of a woman who asked my why in the world I would go to OREGON if I didn't even KNOW anyone out there!

Oh, and then I went to Paris last October by MYSELF. How many times I heard: Oh, I could never leave my kids my kids for that long. (I guess, insinuating, that I am therefore a horrible mother for even contemplating doing so). But - these are the same people who vacation at all inclusives and then leave their kids in the kids club all day while they sit at the pool. Yet we take 2 family vacations a year since my youngest was 2 (he just turned 10) and my kids have been in a babysitting service or kids club while on our family vacations for a total of 1.5 days over the past 8 years.

Thanks for all of your replies! I will not leave for my Memphis trip for 3 more weeks. I am looking forward to it. I hope the weather is warm by then. It is chilly in Eden, NC today! Happy travels!!!
Audrey

Hi Karens, interesting comment about what happens when you go into NYC by yourself. I always get the same reaction when I go into SF. Something along the line of "you're going ALONE?"
Too funny!

It amazes me how, every time I travel someplace that isn't Florida or Las Vegas, I'm asked the same question first thing. "Do you know anybody there?" It seems like most of the world simply cannot imagine the notion of traveling somewhere that is not an obvious tourist spot or where you have family or friends. Conversely, these same people usually have no clue that that there is an entire city full of normal people behind Disney World or the Vegas strip. If you try to tell them you've ventured out of the tourist zone, they are mystified by the notion that there's something there besides a black hole. Their world consists of two places, those you visit and those you live in, and the two never meet.