I've never had much interest in traveling, although in recent years I have decided that I would like to see Hawaii in person one day.  I've lived in Arizona my entire life.  I've been to California four times, and I've spent at least one day in each of the following: New York, Oregon, and Washington DC.   My parents were born here, all my siblings, my husband and his family; although both sets of grandparents come from the mid-west.  Farmers, the whole lot.  It's no wonder I had such a keen desire to own my own piece of land.

I do have friends who have apparently been bitten by the traveling bug.  My friend Sheila comes to mind.  She has already been on several trips but for only a few days at a time.   She and her husband traveled to China for their honeymoon, and for their fifth wedding anniversary they went to Australia.  In between they celebrated her 30th birthday in Egypt and his 32nd birthday in Greece.  For the last few years they have been planning to travel around the world, and the plan is to enjoy traveling as a couple before they come back home and start their family.

As successful Internet entrepreneurs they are generating enough income (much of it passive!) so that they can take the time to travel and completely enjoy themselves.  Sheila is ecstatic about their upcoming plans and naturally we got onto the topic of traveling with money.   If a person is planning a lengthy vacation, and visiting several different countries, what do you do about money?  Do you take a suitcase of American dollars with you?  Do you use travelers checks?  Do you set up an international banking account in several different countries to make everything easier?   In the past Sheila used traveler's checks so it hasn't been an issue but now that they are going to many different countries, this might change everything.

They have a huge map on their living room wall with colored push pins. Each color means something.  Sheila has pink push pins on the places she wants to go, and her husband has blue pins.  Green pins if they've already been there, and red pins if they absolutely must go there.  Sheila's face just lights up with joy whenever she talks about this trip.   They are planning to be gone one year.  One year!  Wow!  They seem to have everything planned out.  I asked if they were planning to sell their home but Sheila's parents live in the same neighborhood  and they will keep an eye on things while they are gone.

I think one of the reasons I don't like to travel is because the few times I have traveled I arrive home so exhausted that I feel like I need another vacation.  I have had symptoms of adrenal fatigue for most of my life and I've always been a homebody. I have no idea what “cabin fever” feels like because I've never been able to stay home enough successive days to experience it. I would probably have to stay home for several months before I'd want to leave home. Especially with the Internet at my fingertips. Just about anything I want or need can be ordered online.  When I was a stay at home mom, and didn't have a car I was home almost every single day of the month and I loved it.  Staying at home grounds me and rejuvenates me, and I could never understand why people are always leaving their homes.  Sometimes I wonder what is the point of having a big home when you are only there to sleep?  Why not live in a small apartment?

When my children were young we used to go on pretend vacations.  We would travel on the city bus to a hotel where I had a free night's stay and we would pretend we were traveling for hours, instead of minutes.  To this day my children love staying in hotels. 🙂

So what about you?   Are you a traveler or homebody?  If you're a traveler, where would you put the red push pin on Sheila's map?