X-Men, Marshmallow Men, Puberty, Fire Phone, Isolation, and the Clown Motel of Your Nightmares

Technically, I’m still in the middle of my last big road trip.

See, the plan was, after quitting my job at the newspaper up in rural NY (with nothing else lined up), I was going to cruise down to Atlanta for Dragon Con that year, then continue on down to Florida for a little while, bounce back up North (stopping to visit people I knew from college who were in the DC area), then up through northern New York, across the top of the country, down the West Coast, and then back east via a southern route that would let me hit Florida and DC again.

I’ve kind of been “stuck” in the DC area for the past decade. Never did make it all the way back to the northern New York bit. (Even though I’ve been back to my home town nearly two dozen times.)

So, technically, still in the middle of that trip.

Over the past week, two road trip ideas have come up. One, a return to New Orleans with some of the people I was with the last time I was there (back in 1993). The other, prompted by the Clown Motel item in today’s feed, with some new(er) friends who I know are good for adventure (and share a quirky, twisted, sense of humor).

I’d like to say both of those will happen.

But the last bunch of road trips I’ve tried to do have fallen short of actually being do-able. Mostly for financial and scheduling reasons. Sometimes, the problems aren’t even mine (though lately, they really have been).

Sure, I’ve managed a Dragon Con trip or two in the past decade… but not recently. And there was that one trip out to the Jersey Shore (which only happened because a friend has a house there and a bunch of us were heading out from the DC area). But, other than those rare exceptions and the trips home for holidays, my wanderlust has been seriously unsatisfied.

I like travel. I really, really do. What I don’t have is one of these three things at any given moment: time, money, or traveling companion(s).

Currently, money is tight and I have no paid vacation. I do, though, have a handful of people willing to go on two different trips. A while back, I had time and people, but seriously lacked money.

It feels like I really can’t win.

Not that that’s going to stop me from continuing to dream about these trips and trying to pull off miracles so I can do them.

Miracles are just few and far between these days.

(As are teleporters… which would really make all this a moot point.)