Spring in France 2013

May 08-11: Queens, NY - Bend, OR- Portland, OR.

Finding a Suitable Travel Companion

It may sound easy, or simple, but finding someone with which you travel 'well' is not always an easy proposition.  Six months ago, when I planned this trip with my friend Bob (master travel planner), I had just started dating someone and had planned on her traveling with me.  As it happens, we stopped seeing each other rather soon thereafter and I found myself with a planned and paid for trip to France without a Travel Companion.

But finding someone with the right mix of adventure, laissez-faire atttitude, 'roll-with-the-punches' ability to adapt to (and sometimes cope with) the challenges of Guerrilla, hit-and-run travel can be a difficult task.

Traveling can be an adventure, but it can also challenge relationships.  The best planned trip can often be described as 'order emerging from chaos,' which means that things can sometimes--and sometimes often--go askew to the plan.  Having a partner who can absorb the normal to and fro of the process can really be the difference between a wonderful experience and a truly dreadful one.

So with that in mind, I set about the process of finding someone to travel with me.

It wasn't easy.  My first choice was my oldest daughter, Jennie.  At 19, she's already a seasoned international traveler.  I've taken her to France, Canada, Japan, China, Saipan... she knows her way around an airport, and is as level-headed as I am when it comes to dealing with the chaos of traveling.

But as a freshman at the University of Oregon, she couldn't take the time away from school.  I also considered my nephew, Nick, who is a professional videographer and web designer.  Again, schedules got in the way.

Bob, the master trip planner, had some suggestions, but for one reason or another, none of them worked out.  As the departure date loomed, I resigned myself to the possibility of traveling alone.  That's not a bad option, though.  Being able to set my own schedule, traveling light and fast and at my own whim, can be a wonderful thing.  The drawback, of course, is having no one to share the experience with.

And I considered pretty much every person I knew.  I didn't ask everyone, because, of course, there are baseline requirements.  Do they have the time to make the trip?  Do they have the money?  (Unfortunately, this was NOT going to be a cheap travel experience.)  Most importantly, does that person have the right temperament for travel?

Most possible travel partners were eliminated without even knowing they were in the running.  I called one friend and left a message: "Hey!  It's been forever since I've heard your voice.  Call me back when you get this and let's catch up!"  But they never did call me back.  Everything happens for a reason, I have learned.

So when Jennie suggested I call my friend Kori, I really didn't expect her to be able to come on the trip.  Kori and I have been friends for almost fifteen years... we go waaaay back.   But really, I hadn't called her earlier, because I knew she wouldn't be able to make it work.  She juggles two careers and is a parent to boot; Kori is a rock star at scheduling 'life.'  She works full time as an emergency services manager for a public agency, while also serving as a Major in the Air National Guard.  I really was not surprised that when I called her up and asked if she wanted to go, she regretfully declined.

She already had a trip planned with coworkers to Las Vegas, and she would have to take a full two weeks off work to go to France.  There was just no way she could make it work.  And I completely understood.

We caught up and rung off, and I resigned myself to traveling solo.

It wasn't long before she called me back.

"I told my coworkers about your trip, and they all looked at me like I was crazy.  I told my parents and the told me I was crazy.  I told my boss, and... you know what?  I am crazy if I say no.  I need to go on this trip!" She said.

And with that, I had a last minute travel companion.

And I was excited, because I've known Kori for such a long time.  We've been friends forever, and while we hadn't traveled together like this before, I knew the kind of traveler she would most probably be.  Level headed, open to changes, able to be scheduled without being anal compulsive about the whole thing.  Flexible.  An asset in challenging situations.  A resource, not just a body in the seat.  I was stoked.

The Beginning

When my last work trip ended at La Guardia on Monday afternoon, I still had a couple of reserve days on my line and sat in the crashpad for 48 hours while they passed.  There was a twelve hour window where Mother D could have given me a one or two day trip on short call, but the period passed uneventfully, and by Wednesday I was on my way west, home to pack.  Once I left New York, the clock was ticking... it would be a very short trip home. 36 hours, during which I had to pay my bills, wash my clothes, repack my work bag, then pack for France. 

I wrote about my packing "theology" in a previous blog... suffice it to say that I ended up with 6 lbs of clothes and 15 lbs of camera and computer gear.  It was an appropriate ratio.

Leaving Bend, I hit the ground running.  Sleep was a secondary priority... I got my chores done, packed my kit and headed for Portland to meet up with Kori.

I crashed at her house in Beaverton that night, and watched her pack... she whittled her piles down from "all" her clothes, to "most" of her clothes... to almost none of her clothes.  After several iterations, she ended up with a very respectable packing job... one medium rollaboard for her clothes and a backpack for books, camera and other gear.  I asked if she had read my blog on packing.  She hadn't, but it didn't matter.  Kori, I already knew, had her head in the game.  She was of a like mind... less is more.

The next morning we caught the morning flight from Portland to Salt Lake.  Loads had been tightening significantly in the weeks prior to the trip, and I had been nervously monitoring the dwindling seat numbers.   You should probably realize that I'm skipping the nerve-wracking part, where I checked aircraft loads every hour, gaming the system to see if there were better odds flying out of different cities in the US to different cities in Europe.  Bob and his wife Marnie were traveling from Dallas, Texas to Paris... and ended up getting bumped off the JFK-CDG flight and flew to London-Heathrow, then took the TGV Bullet Train through the Chunnel (Channel-Tunnel) into Paris, which cost them a pretty penny.   As Bob so eloquently stated, "It's only money."  He was smiling as he said it, there's that.

After a three hour sit in Salt Lake, we boarded the Paris flight.  We were elated to see that we had been upgraded to First Class (called Business Elite nowadays), and that the food, alcohol and movies were 'gratis.'  Most importantly, the seats were 'lay-flat,' which means that when you want to sleep, the seat lays back to horizontal, and the seat becomes a bed.   This makes a HUGE difference in your fatigue level on arrival.  Any sleep you can get on the inbound flight is good sleep... even if you have to take a sleeping aid of some kind.   The vibration, light and noise make for restless, shallow sleep, but do not try to stay awake, watching movies all night and simply 'power thru' till landing.  The inertia of sleep will overtake you later that day, and you'll be absolutely miserable.

A hearty meal, a quick movie (End of Watch, Jake Gyllenhaal), and then sleep.  And 10 hours later, we landed in Paris.  Passport control, no bags to claim (remember, never ever check bags unless absolutely necessary!), an ATM to get Euros...

A quick note about Travelex and other money-changing services... avoid them at all costs.  They give the worst exchange rate, and charge a percentage fee on top of the crappy exchange rate.  You'll lose the most value using these services.  I can see where it might be necessary on rare occasion, but try to minimize their use.  The cheapest way to exchange money is almost always via an ATM.  I use USAA, who refunds any ATM fees, gives money at the direct daily exchange rate as set by the market, and does not charge an exchange fee.  Basically, it's a direct, free exchange.  Other banks may charge fees, but they won't approach the costs of using a Travelex or other Money Broker.

After arrival in Paris, it was time to find the Hotel.   We trained to the Les Halles section for Paris, just east of the Louvre, and about three blocks from the Centre Georges Pompadeau.  We were exhausted... and the room wasn't ready for us yet.  We checked in, dropped our bags, and headed to the Cathedral Notre Dame, about 1/2 of a km from the hotel, on an island in the middle of the Seine River (Isle de Paris).  We sat in the sun, reflected on the the fact that yes, we were actually here, in Paris and eating a baguette with ham and brie.  After an hour, the room was ready, and we crashed... hard.   We slept in the way that only sleep deprived, jet-lagged travelers can sleep.  We slept the sleep of the dead.

More to come.  So sorry to rush thru the 'en route' portion, but the real experience awaits.   We were in Paris.  Cheers.