Old and Young Travelers

At one of my yearly physical exams, my doctor and I were discussing everything and anything under the sun when he says out of nowhere “You know, once you hit 45 years old, everything starts to go downhill”. Where that came from, I don’t know – we were talking about hiking trails in National Parks. I might have mentioned that my knees were hurting a bit and it was harder to see the fine print on things like stop signs and the like. Still, saying something like that during a physical exam can be disconcerting. 

It’s supposed to be said at the end of the exam on the way out of the office. Besides, I was nowhere near fifty...

I pondered these words as I walked to my car in the parking lot. As I got into the driver’s seat, I promptly forgot all about them because I remembered that we were going to Disneyworld in a couple of weeks! Disneyworld is no place for people on their way downhill, so by that logic, I was not getting older. I love logic, especially my own.

The weeks flew by and so did the whole family, as we spent a scintillating twelve hours in airplanes and airports, waiting at rent-a-car counters and baggage claims, finally driving to our hotel across the street from a penitentiary and only 15 minutes from the famous Park.

Now, with me being the so-called ‘old’ guy, you’d think it was me who held everyone up in the morning. But nooo, it was my kids. Really. After years of promising to take them to Disneyworld and years of them reminding me of that fact, I needed a hand grenade and a small donkey to get them out of bed.

Once we got going, it was pretty good. Three days at Disneyworld, one at the waterpark, a day at Daytona Beach and a day at Kennedy Space Centre (you have to see that place! Amazing!). Now I happen to think that the itinerary wasn’t too bad. We had a chance to see everything we wanted and go where we wanted to. The funny thing is the kids always begged off at about 4:00 pm every afternoon. I am not kidding. Ask my darling wife, she heard it as well.

After every excursion, my wife and I would ask the kids what they wanted to do next. Universal Studios? The NASA Museum? Shopping at the discount malls? A movie? Every time the same answer – nah, let’s just go back to the hotel and hang at the pool. The pool that faced a line of wonderful palm trees right next to the Interstate Highway. The hotel that stuffed five of us into a room that had two double beds and a folding cot, one TV and a bathroom with no fan.

That room alone would have made them keep as busy as possible, you’d think.

Here I am, supposedly on the downward spiral and not capable of keeping up with the next generation and it’s my kids that want to vegetate on the pool deck. Can you believe it?!?

So to my doctor I say, please read this article and then quiz my kids. Use that truth drug or wave one of the tongue depressors in front of them to get the truth. That will prove that I am still as immature, ah, young at heart as ever. Now if I could only see the darn ‘save’ key...