Especially if you are retirement age or above. There is something about having to constantly adapt to relatively new things in your life even if they are a cycle like for us mostly it is SF Bay area then Santa Barbara then Mt. Shasta and sometimes Portland to visit my son and his family. He is doing a whole lot better since we visited and his son as well and even his wife has returned now from visiting her father overseas so this is good too.
However, this summer was sort of a stretch even for me. I had wanted to go to Europe for the birth of one of my grandchildren this summer but we did go to San Diego for the birth of our adopted daughters newest son in August. We also went to visit our youngest daughter in Texas where she is working there and on the way to Portland and back we visited friends in Mt. Shasta as well.
However, by the time I returned home to the SF Bay area it is sort of like my head was spinning. And then my wife wanted to visit her friend who was having an operation soon because they both were having elective surgery within a month of each other so they might not see each other for several months at least.
Somehow when my wife left unexpectedly I felt at first sort of lost because she had been sick the week before until suddenly she wanted to go visit her friend and I had had to take care of her until she got more well I guess and then she left.
So, I guess I sort of felt sort of lost after the amount of time we had spent together traveling all over the western United States since around June.
Normally we go to Hawaii in the fall sort of traditionally with another couple but they had gone for several months to Nepal and India and had gotten pretty sick there as well as doing musical concerts with another member of their band there too. I think I'm really too old to go back to India and Nepal now if I want to stay alive much longer, especially after having giardia in 1985 and 1986 for around 6 months and looking like a skinny scarecrow back then too. By the time I came back to the U.S. I was literally seeing spots before my eyes from starvation from the protazoa eating my food in my intestines.
So, because of this I don't think I want to return at this age because I'm not sure i could survive getting sick like that or with Covid while there. My friends the musicians got both things as well as one of them being attacked by a pack of wild dogs and having to go through a rabies series of long needles into the stomach area.
So, I think I'm just happy to be here or maybe somewhere in Europe now at age 76. However, in 2022 we bought a self driving car, a high end Subaru and drove to Lake Louise in Canada near Banff and on the way we stopped in Lake Tahoe and Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park (I had never been to Glacier before) and then up through to Calgary and Banff and Lake Louis before we came down through Washington and Oregon back to California. We drove 5000 miles in about 5 weeks time mostly with our friends we often travel to Hawaii with this time of year in October.
However, last year we went to Kauai in October a year ago 2023 and couldn't go to Maui because Lahaina burned down too recently.
So, because of this while our friends were getting sick and playing music in India and Nepal we in April were in Maui at Kaanapali in West Maui and Napili. We had an amazing drive up Haleakala and found a really cool restaurant while watching the sunset at around 4000 or 5000 feet with entertainment and people singing and playing music for the 4 of us and more. So, this was a really cool experience on Maui up Haleakala too as well as snorkeling at Napili as well. Great Trip!
So, traveling can be helpful to longevity simply because it forces you to be more adaptable in your life and you have to use your mental and physical muscles more traveling. However, it's true some people don't like to travel. However, I love to travel as long as I'm not traveling alone. I usually don't like to be more than 400 miles from home if I'm alone and I usually am going someplace familiar like Mt. Shasta where I have many friends even then if I'm traveling alone.
So, everyone is different but traveling can be very healing and inspiring but it also can be difficult in adapting to all the changes too. But then, I like to some degree the challenges of TRaveling mostly as long as I'm not traveling alone too much.
Happy Traveling everyone!
Note: My oldest biological daughter didn't want me to travel to Europe for the birth of her first child because she didn't want me to die doing this because of my health. Also, she said that she wouldn't be able to care for me if anything went wrong with my health when I got there. My wife didn't want to go mostly because it was too close to an operation she had had planned to do. So, as a result I had to give into my daughter and my wife and wait for them to come here likely around Christmas instead. Since they are coming here is saves me a least a month of Jet lag which I find happens now that I'm older when I travel that far. Where they live is 9 hours ahead of our pacific time.
And I have noticed since I have been 50 every year it is harder to deal effectively with jet lag and now it takes me about a month to readjust to my home time after going someplace like Europe or South Korea where my son lived for 5 years until 2018.
So, like I said traveling can help as long as you can survive it physically and psychologically. However, it's also true traveling likely isn't for everyone because some people just are not comfortable away from wherever they live on earth.
I find I'm relatively comfortable and very interested in places and people almost anywhere I travel here on earth. It's an adventure!
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