There’s a new ailment in town brought on by Covid-19: it’s called Travel Nostalgia and so many of us are suffering from it. When you are in the travel business or travel is your everyday normal, confinement takes on a whole new level. This new normal has stopped tourism, especially international tourism, in its tracks. For months now, I have not written much on my travel blog and we all know why: we haven’t gone anywhere! I mean how can you be prolific right now when the name of your blog is SimplyTravelAbroad?
Because I had to cancel all my trips, especially the two work-related wine trips to Europe, I felt frozen in time. Days spent watching sad and depressing news became weeks, turned into months. Travel Nostalgia took a stronghold and would not let go. I developed this longing of travel days, I looked at photos from past trips, re-read my travel diaries, remembered all the places I had planned to visit.
However, you cannot dwell on these events forever, so my husband and I have decided to do the next best thing we could think of: we bought a Recreational Vehicle. It’s made for comfortable travel, no need to stop for food or bathroom breaks, and most of all, it’s safer in a pandemic. I was not sure what this experience would be like, but I was willing to try. Don’t get me wrong, an RV trip has always been on the back of my mind ever since I was a child and dreamed of visiting all the beautiful national parks in style. But the truth is, I have never even been inside an RV before and the idea of driving the equivalent of a bus was a bit intimidating.
The first time we visited RV land, we entered an uncharted new world. A sea of live-in vehicles lined the enormous lot, one bigger than the next, wild painted decals all over them like glorified travel tattoos. Masks on faces, hands in pockets, we followed the salesman who showed us all the amenities and special options. We visited a 24-foot model, something very close to a house. A tiny house. In my days of binge-watching HGTV, I had been mesmerized by people who downsized their lives into a tiny house. It could be done. For a week.
The vehicle we toured had a kitchen with a real stove, microwave and tv, a pull-out sofa in the “living room” and a bathroom with a small stainless-steel sink that eerily resembled an airplane’s but with the added luxury of a shower. The back slide out turned into a bedroom and the tiny closet had sufficient space. After all, I had traveled the world with only carry-on luggage, how hard could this be? We were sold!
I excitedly ordered shelf liners and an array of plastic baskets and containers for organization, too many to fit into the RV according to my husband. He didn’t understand that you can’t have enough organizing gadgets. Obviously he was not familiar with Pinterest!
I arranged my collection of soaps, little bottles of shampoo and conditioners, saved from hotel stays, into the much needed bathroom baskets. Into the cabinets, I piled up the anti-mosquito bracelets previously purchased from a trip to Brazil during the Zika virus epidemic. In went the slippers from the hotel in Venice, the souvenir dish towels from the trip to Porto, the wine glasses from France. Even the red and white thermos from Switzerland fit nicely into the drawers. The clog-shaped salt and pepper shakers from a flight in Amsterdam were a perfect fit! The mini liquor bottles saved from a trip to the Dominican Republic were good to have, just in case. Then, as I pulled back to look at my stash, it hit me: I was making my own travel vessel! All my travel trinkets were coming back to life! We were about to embark on a journey in our private aircraft, we were about to pilot our own trip. The captain chairs would be ours, we would decide on the timetable and the food, hopefully, would be tastier.
Once a traveler always a traveler. Our RV adventure, with our oblivious Pomeranian in tow, was about to begin. Travel Nostalgia would not beat us. Stay tuned.
