I Have a Secret; a Preface

I have a secret.  Some of my friends know this about me, but many don't.  Mostly, I'm not real good with sharing secrets, mine or others', and this will be a tough post to write. I've decided to share today because there seems to be more and more people out there who are like me.  I have a chronic illness.  It's not contagious and it's not supposed to be progressive.  My decision to write this post comes after a fellow sufferer asked me how I manage to travel and I'd like to answer this question, but in my next post.

In this post, I want to talk about some of my symptoms so that in the next post I can cover how to travel with chronic illness.  Luckily for you (not so much me), my illness comes with a very broad spectrum of symptoms that go with it.  You may also experience one of these, and I have many coping strategies to handle them while you're traveling or even at home.  Some of my symptoms are:

• migraines with light, sound & smell sensitivities
• irritable bowel syndrome with combination diarrhea/constipation/nausea
• allodynia, a touch sensitivity which can affect my skin
• musculoskeletal pain
• fatigue, loss of energy and sometimes brain fog.

I have good days and bad days just like anyone else.  These symptoms don't usually occur all at once, but I do experience them periodically.  I have learned to hide my illness as much as possible and smile through it.  I wear a mask and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. What people with chronic illness get tired of hearing is:

• but you don't look sick, have you seen a counselor?
• have you tried fill in the blank here with the latest diet/exercise/herb-vitamin
• how do you do it, I just don't think I could handle that
• your poor family

I could go on and on with this stuff.  Yes, I have seen a counselor.  I don't look sick because I don't want you to know.  I have tried diets and some exercise.  I am not a hypochondriac, I am not an addict, I am not crazy and I am not looking for attention.  I don't want to be defined by my disease.  I handle it through the grace of God and the support of my family and friends.  Yes, I totally agree, my poor family.  

According to the National Health Council, there are approximately 133 million people in America who suffer with chronic illness.  This is why I wrote this post and will begin including a few tidbits in the future.  More likely than not, you or someone you know is affected by a chronic disease.  I hope my insights will help!

What's a typical day like?

Have you ever wondered what does a typical day on tour/pilgrimage look like?

Day 1

We will leave Nola airport mid-afternoon on Day 1, have a lay-over in Atlanta (I'm guessing) for a couple of hours.  This gives everyone time to use the restroom and grab a snack or download a book on the airport's wifi.  We will then fly to our destination.  Flight time overseas is typically about nine and a half hours.  On the plane, they will provide earbuds for movies, an eye mask, foam earplugs, a small pillow and light blanket.  They provide drinks (alcoholic and nonalcoholic) and a small packet of nuts or pretzels. About an hour into the flight, they will provide a meal.  If you or your family have any dietary restrictions, you will need to alert our airline prior to check-in (for the rest of the trip, I will notify our company to make accommodations for allergies,etc.).  After the meal, we encourage everyone to get some sleep.

This is what happens when teenagers watch movies the entire flight and are somewhat delirious upon arrival in the airport!

Day 2

Europe is on average seven hours ahead of us so when we land, it will be Day 2 on our Itinerary.  The best way to overcome jet lag is to hit the ground moving.  Trust me, you might be tired, but this is truly good travel planning.  Once we arrive in the destination airport, we will collect our baggage and go through customs.  After customs, we will meet our Tour Director who coordinates buses, hotels, museum entries, etc.  He or she is typically from the destination country and will stay with us the entire trip.  He is the go-between for us and the locals.  In the case of the Pilgrimage, Fr. Sensat and I will assume these rolls.  We may have to wait 30-45 minutes for another group to arrive.  We then board our bus and start our tour of city.  Usually, this half-day is an overview of the city with a few minor stops to get our bearings.  Once we're done with our taste of the city, we will head to eat supper.  Supper may be at our hotel or a restaurant located in the city.  Day 2 is usually an early turn-in after supper.   

Day 3

7am:  Wake

7:30am: Breakfast

8am: Depart from hotel

8-1p:  Walking or Bus tour of the City

1-3p:  Lunch on your own an Free time for shopping or exploration

3-7p:  Walking or Bus tour,  or travel to next destination

7-8p:  Small break before dinner to freshen up

8-9pm:  Dinner

9pm: Coffee shop, bar or ice cream if you so desire, or turn in for the night

During Pilgrimages, we will make time every day for mass which you may or may not choose to attend.  

Please note that European meal times differ from American meal times so you are highly encouraged to bring snacks such as granola bars or other dry snack packages.  You also have plenty of free time for coffee and bathroom breaks.  We recommend you bring a refillable water bottle as well. The price of bottled water can be expensive.

Travel times with wait requirements, flights and layovers can vary.  Dress comfortably and in layers.  One airport may be very hot, while the plane may be freezing cold or vice versa.

How much you walk per day can average 4-6 miles on uneven ground.  Wear good walking shoes that are broken in already! 

Remember this is an example of your trip days and nothing is set in stone even when we are on tour.  Most importantly, be on time.  We will wait no more than 15 minutes, and then you will need to find a taxi to our next stop.

There will be snafus and screw-ups on every trip.  Your attitude will make or break the trip for you, so have patience and have a good time!

If you are interested in going on our next Pilgrimage, click on this link and scroll down to France & Spain Pilgrimages.  We are almost halfway to a full group so don't wait!

Spain & Portugal Pilgrimage 2017

Who are you?

First things first-  Did you miss the Pilgrimage meeting and need the information?  Not sure how to sign up?  Here are all of the resources you need:

Pilgrimage 2017

And on to other interesting topics.  Have I mentioned how much I hate this time of year?  It must be because this is one of the busy seasons for lodging, you say.  Well, not really.  Okay, maybe kind of.  I think it's the beautiful weather.  Seriously, it makes me restless.  I want to go somewhere.  No, I don't want to go down to the Walmart.  Pinterest will have to make do for a while.  <sigh>

In the midst of flood renovations and Mardi Gras, I have also been taking an online marketing course.  Like I have nothing else to do.  I enjoy classes like this since it tells me a lot about how people think.  One of the assignments involved taking the Myers Briggs personality profile.  I have taken this test more in depth several years ago and decided to take it again to see if I had "changed".  Alas, I am still an INTJ, but I lie close to an ISTJ.  And not surprisingly, the rest of our family are all introverted too.  If you're not familiar with this type of personality profile, there are four aspects:

Introverted (I) vs. Extroverted (E)

Intuition (N) vs Sensing (S)

Thinking (T) vs Feeling (F)

Judging (J) vs Perception (P)

Basically, it helps you define how you relate to others, your environment, your intellect, emotions, etc.  It's pretty interesting.  But, you ask, how in the world (get it?) does this relate to travel?  I did a little research and Voila!  According to Neris Analytics Limited © 2011-2016, the three most Introverted countries in the world are Japan, Lithuania, and Portugal.  The three most Extroverted countries in the world are located in the Middle East.  They had this really cool map that you can click on a country and find out what it is.  Most of the countries were only slightly more Introverted or Extroverted, such as France was more Extroverted by only 50.23% and Italy was more Introverted by 52.13%.   In the United States, Washington D.C., New York, and Mississippi were top for Extraverts, while West Virginia, Alaska, and Maine reported the highest percentages of Introverts. And drum roll for Louisiana..... we are reported at 50.08% introverted.  How about that?  Fascinating stuff right here.

If you want to find out what Personality type you are, here is a simple free version of the Myers Briggs test:

Myers Briggs Personality Test

Once you're done taking the test, check out a brief description of each personality type here:

Personality Descriptions

You can then go on to your more in depth, but still free description if you would like more information.

I really enjoyed learning about this information and I hope you can have fun with it too!  Don't forget to let me know what personality type you are!

My great walking shoes that turned out to be not so great

This past weekend, my husband and I and a couple of our boys went to Houston to do hotel furniture shopping.  After we flooded this past August 2016, we had to replace some things in half of the hotel rooms and everything in the other half of the hotel rooms.  Six months following the flood, and we are just now getting the final renovations done.  We went to a hotel furniture wholesale market and Ikea.  You wouldn't think that the walking was that extensive and it wasn't.  First, we went to these places to plan the layout of the rooms with what was available and what accents such as wall decor and rugs.  Then we went back and picked out what we wanted and calculated pricing and what was within our budget.  We went back a third time to load everything up.  This all circles around to an average amount of walking.
By the time we left Saturday night (Day 3) to drive home, my feet were in pain.  What I thought to be great walking shoes that I had owned for over six months gave me several blisters on the tops of both of my feet as well as a couple of blisters on the bottom (no heel blisters).

Part of the problem was that we ate sodium-filled junk food all weekend and my feet swelled up quite a bit.  Unfortunately, this is a common problem when I travel no matter how much water I drink.

I have to admit that blisters can just totally ruin a good trip.  These were Clark's brand walking shoes.  My impulse is to toss them in the dumpster but I'm giving myself time to reconsider.  I'm back on the quest for a cute pair of walking shoes that are comfortable, functional but look good with a skirt.  Got any suggestions?

A Few Travel hints for the Ladies

I am directing this post mainly to my lady travel buds out there.  You men might find a few of these hints helpful, but it will be like going through your wife's purse.  Ask yourself, "do I really want to do this?"

One of the most important purchases you can make for your trip is a good pair of walking shoes.  Don't buy shoes online, trust me.  Go to your shoe store and try them on.  Make sure to break them in long before you go on tour.  This includes flip flops.  Hurting feet and legs can ruin an otherwise good trip.  It's also important to bring blister packs just in case.  Shoes that you thought were great back home may still give you blisters after walking all day on uneven streets.

Unless you are traveling to very cold climates, leave the cute boots behind.  They take up too much room in your luggage as well as being heavy.

Always pack light.  The elevators in Europe were made during the Renaissance and are usually the size of my coat closet.  This means you will be lugging your bags up several flights of stairs to get to your room.  Make sure the luggage is as light as possible.  Don't waste your allotted weight limit on a great piece of luggage instead of that great bottle of wine.

Also, don't be that person who is holding up the line because her luggage is not within the airline size restrictions.  Check beforehand regarding the size allowance as well as the permissible items you can fly with.  Use your conditioner for shaving cream and cut one more thing you need to pack. I bet you have lots of ideas too!

Pack a dryer sheet in your luggage for a fresher smell, as well as a small bottle of wrinkle release spray.  The spray will give your clothes a cleaner smell and take that packed look away too.  Bring plenty of underwear and socks, but also pack panty-liners to keep you feeling fresh throughout those hot days.  Tide has travel packets of laundry detergent specifically made for hand washing in the sink.  This way you can pack even less.

There are lots of suggestions out there on how to pack.  Should you pack in cubes or zippered plastic bags?  I prefer a little of both.  I pack my shoes in a cube with my socks.  This is the cube I pack for my bras and panties. Usually I will pack some of my panties in the cups of my bras as well.

Amazon Bra Bag

The rest of my clothes I put in the zippered bags.  I put shirts together, bottoms together and pajamas together.  I don't like to pack by outfits because you can't be sure of weather and I'm fickle in what I like to wear on which day.

Keep extra change handy in case you need to use the restroom.  Most public restrooms in Europe charge a euro or two to use.

One of my last tips for the day is to wear clothes with pockets so that you can easily access your passport, money and lip gloss.  If your clothes don't have pockets, look into a travel vest.  A purse is easily picked up and can get heavy (even the cross body ones) depending on what you put in it.

If you have a great travel hint, I would love to hear it!

Bis bald!

What makes me different?

                                 

Photo by my friend, Rick Nesbitt
If you don't know me, you're probably wondering what makes me different from all of the other bloggers and travel writers.  Let me tell you a little about myself and then we can get on to the fun stuff like how to stuff the kids in the overhead compartment when they are whining and you have two hours left on your flight!

I have been traveling solo since I was two years old flying to meet my biological father for the holidays.  My grandmother said I was her little gypsy with my bag always packed.  It must be in my blood because she went all over the world and oftentimes took me with her.  My husband, Lance, and I have been married for almost 25 years.

Hot hubby, Lance

We have six children ages 22 to 10.

(missing Lance, adding Mom & friend)

I love traveling with my family except for those long car trips when you wonder where the benadryl is because "he looked at me" too many times!

We travel with our kids two or three times a year, as a couple two or three times a year, and individually when we can't both get away from our businesses.
Right after grad school, we moved back to Eunice and bought a vintage motor-court motel.

We added RV sites, bought an RV of our very own, made lots of renovations to our little inn and Voila!, I have been on the opposite side of the travel industry for about twenty years.

Once the kids were a tad bit older, I started helping with a few festivals in our town.  I was also elected to the St. Landry Parish Tourism Commission in 2015, and became a tour leader for EF Tours.

All of this brings me back to the question of what makes me special?  Is it my pretty pink toes?

Sorry, I got off track.  Anyhoo, whatever I post it will be with lots of experience behind it.

My site will be primarily geared toward the traveler on group tours.  Having experienced both, Lance and I love traveling with a group!  I'll go more in depth later, but essentially everything is done for us.  We live very busy and stressful lives and want to experience the world with as little headache of planning as possible.

Here are two fantastic articles to help you decide which is right for you:
Group Tours Vs. Solo Travel
Organized Tour vs. Solo Travel

Hasta la vista!