The Runaway Travel Adventure

THE RUNAWAY TRAVEL ADVENTURE

Part One

 How It Began. This blog is a cautionary tale how a seemingly innocuous round  trip to New York City and back to Minneapolis  turned  into a multi-week odyssey: an across-the-Atlantic voyage on the Queen Mary 2 to Southampton, and then by train  to several of the famous Great Houses in central England. But how could such embellishments occur? When planning a trip it is essential to be on the lookout for certain key words your partner may casually be saying, such as: “as long as we’re in (fill in the city or location), we might as well go on to (again fill in).”  Fateful words!

How It Grew. The expanded itinerary began early this year when the wife and I were planning a major family celebration for early summer in New York City. This mission was readily accomplished. Then a while later I was informed, with those beguiling-“might as well” words, that  immediately after the  end of our festivities the Queen Mary 2 just happened to be sailing from New York-to England. (My partner is a dedicated travel writer, and such arcane information is always at the ready.) . We had often talked about taking such a trip, so why not now?  Thus the plan was changed to include this voyage, and I assumed the added adventure would finish with an immediate flight home. (more…)