How do passionate travelers spend their time when traveling is sidelined?

I’ve moved or I should say I’m moving from Blogger to WordPress. When blogger stopped supporting its app for the IPad, blogger became too frustrating.  So 50 Beds and counting (50bedsgapyear.blogspot.com) has morphed into this blog. I’m trying to work out issues with glitchy performance from Word Press and I’m hopeful we’ll get there.

Forward we go.

Back to my title question: If you are a traveler and can’t travel for awhile how do you spend your time?

I’ve pondered this question hundreds of times over the last five months. We’ve been sidelined, benched, our traveling life suspended by cancer, the nasty game changer. This is a blow to two people who have visited 25 countries, most of them new destinations for us, over the past two and a half years as well as a number of US destinations. Two people who planned their early retirement years, their “Go-Go Years,” as a time filled with adventures have been stuck at home.

When I say stuck, I mean stuck at home.

We’ve enjoyed pleasures while hanging around town — made new friends, deepened friendships with current friends, protested, worked to get out the Democratic vote, took classes — mosaic, XC skiing, snowshoed, read tons of books, binged watched British mystery and crime TV shows, mourned the election results, shoveled snow, worried about snow on our roof, joined our neighbors in digging out the storm drains, stocked up on Smartwool socks, slid on the ice, and drank margaritas.
We’ve also scoured cruise specials, bike tours, airfare deals as a means of staying connected to our traveling dreams. Planning a trip prior to receiving an all-clear from the surgeon-oncologist and approval to board a long haul flight seemed risky, like we might jinx a most wanted outcome. So we’ve contented ourselves with dreaming.
I’m glad we did not delay travel over the past two and a half years.
Now surgery is over, recovery has begun, the pathology report will soon be known. We’ll be traveling again once good news is ours. Because if you are a person who loves traveling, exploring, learning about the world, being sidelined….isn’t so great.

Bend Women’s March.