Adventures for the Non-Adventurous

I have so many friends and family members who love to travel. They go to many wonderful destinations: Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, Patagonia, Iceland. Others have homes in other countries where they go and live as if they’ve been locals in these far-off places all their lives.

And then there’s me. I can barely get around a corner without getting lost. I almost had a panic attack in the TSA of my small (I mean REALLY small) home airport because I was made to stand off to the side and I lost sight of my family. That was also when I got flagged for having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my backpack; I could see myself being carted away to some unknown spot and being released without a clue of where I was at.

        Over the holidays I flew to the East Coast to take care of my daughter who had major surgery. Here’s the dilemma: I was going there as a mother whose daughter was in need; I was staying in her small, cozy apartment and she does not have a car because she’s in the middle of a big city and uses public transportation.

        So…do I learn how to use a subway in December with 30 mile-an-hour winds smacking me upside the head and steep icy stairwells leading to the underground or do I go tech and try for the first time in my life to get an Uber?  

        And thus began the adventures for the non-adventurous. I saw a crowded bus pass a group of people who were waiting for it, which struck me as a quick way to freeze off my sad Southern California limbs before I ever got a chance to get lost. So, I decided to take Ubers.

        Laugh if you want, but this had its element of adventure, to be sure. I opened the door into oncoming traffic that made the driver yelp in alarm at me (“You’ll tear off the door!”), to one whose seats were covered so thoroughly I couldn’t fasten the seat belts and so sat pressing the belt buckle into the back of the seat because otherwise the car would beep (the driver was oblivious to my struggles). Or the one whose brakes kept grinding every time we tried to stop, and she apologized with a smile, “Sorry for the noise.”

        The grand finale was after I’d been with my daughter for a month and her friends became my friends, so I took an Uber to meet one of these new friends for coffee. To get to the coffee house, the Uber had to go through one of the worst areas of the city. I stared wide-eyed out the window, wondering just where I was going and dropped my location to my family, none of whom could help me if I got stranded (but it made me feel better).

        I ended up having a lovely afternoon. I had an adventure trying to get out of the building because you had to buzz your way out, but I couldn’t get to the door fast enough after I buzzed it, so luckily my friend manned the door and we were able to get outside with a team effort. She stayed with me until my Uber came and I felt so accomplished when I arrived at my daughter’s apartment.

        So, no, I won’t be hiking any trails in Kenya by myself, or cruising to Antarctica on my own, but adventure is all relative and I’ll appreciate this one for the win that it was.