Suitcase and World: Meet My Travel Partner.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Meet My Travel Partner.

Say hello to Pat, my travel partner for this trip. When I had decided to do this trip,  I wanted a seasoned traveler by my side as I knew that traveling through Central Asia would not necessarily be easy.  There was only one person that I thought who would be even remotely interested and capable in coming with me and that is this lady.

She is an experienced traveler who has been to more than 70 countries and counting.  Her travels have taken to all corners of the globe and even in her younger days, when money was tight, she and her husband (now deceased) figured out how to stretch their money to enable them to travel.  They were budget travelers before the phrase ever even existed!  Her husband's love of foreign languages took them to non-English countries that most people would never dream of traveling to - like Mali.  I find it amusing to think that off all the places that she has never been to but wants to go to, the UK tops the list.  

 
At an age (81) when most people would be content to just while away their days, this spritely grandmother of two is not about to sit still.

She is smart, adventurous, curious, full of energy and more than able to keep up with me.

She is also very disciplined, super well organized.  On this trip, she has been in charge of the clock (making sure we get to where we need to be on time), the room key, and when needed, the map.  She's also handle getting us checked in and out of the hotels.  No, I've not had to do much :-)

She has a very positive outlook on life that is coupled with wonderful sense of humor - we've had a number of side busting laughs on this trip!

The one virtue that she is missing is that she is not patient and she will readily admit to that.  The one thing that always seem to test her patience was trying to access her email.  Slow wifi = slow server response = unable to login = frustrated Pat!  Luckily, I am extremely patient so I balance her out.


She also is pretty tech savvy. She has both her Kindle and iPad with her.  Yes, you can find her either reading Game of Thrones on her Kindle or playing Words With Friends and other games on her iPad. 

Unless I sit down and think about it, I completely forget she is as old as she is.  Just goes to show you that as long as you are healthy, age should not stop you from living life.  She inspires me to want to live a more healthy, active and fuller life.

We make good travel partners and are planning to travel again in the not so distant future. Truth is as long as she wants to travel with me, I will go with her.  I just hope that I will not fall behind her as I get older!