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Traveling Internationally 11/2021
Traveling in general today is much different than it has been in the past. There are restrictions and then you have to watch for Airline related cancelations and issues. International travel is the trickiest kind of travel there is right now. This past week I traveled internationally for the first time since January of 2020. I took a trip to Costa Rica for five days. This post will be about what I did to prepare and what I experienced when traveling internationally to Costa Rica Before The Trip – Costa Rica research A couple months before our trip I began researching what the current situation was in Costa Rica including…
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An Eventful Trip-State of Travel 8-27-2021
Donna and I have continued to travel some during the past couple of months and we have encountered some more challenges this summer mainly due to the extremely wild weather that has been going on across the United States. An Eventful Trip A few weeks back we were scheduled to travel to Puerto Rico for the first time but after monitoring weather conditions in Puerto Rico that was forecasted to get hit by a tropical storm we decided to cancel our trip to Puerto Rico. We have been stranded in places in the past due to unexpected weather issues so we are working to be even more cautious and prudent…
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State of Travel-8/2/2021
I want to give a quick update on what all is going on in the travel world today. We have continued to do some traveling so I’ll go over some of what we have experienced and some of the different things I have heard from others while traveling. The crowds are back Since the Spring break time flights have been pretty much completely booked. Its even more so now during the summer as there have been few flights we have been on that has any empty seats. With that the airports have become crowded as they had before the pandemic. With all the crowds I heavily recommend giving yourself plenty…
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A Bit of Encouragement
Travel is not much different than regular life as you will have moments of great joy and fulfillment and then times where nothing goes right and you feel helpless. This year is an example from a travel perspective of one that has been filled with ups and downs. We have had some great trips to different places that we learned a lot about different cities and cultures but we have also been stranded multiple times including during the big Texas freeze where we worried about our cats and home and hearing stories of great suffering and damage going on as we were in Phoenix. We sat nervously in the hotel…
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Texas Travel – Getting Reacquainted With Home Part – The Conclusion
In my series we have traveled through all the regions of Texas. Texas is a unique state where you can travel through time by just traveling through the state. The state is full of different cultures, history, outdoor spaces and of course food and drinks waiting to be discovered. The state is full of diverse people and very different living conditions from big cities to rural farming communities to desolate ranch lands. You can pretty much do any activity you would like in this gigantic state except for winter sports like skiing. While there is a lot of good with Texas there are also issues with our state. No state…
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Texas Travel – Getting Reacquainted With Home Part VII
Last but not least in our tour is another area of Texas that people do not mention or visit as often as other regions in Texas but it still has unique sites and culture. Some of our best trips have been to places people might question why we chose to visit there. I have only visited the Texas Panhandle and Texas High plains twice so far in my life. I visited Amarillo once when I was in high school and we recently visited Lubbock in May of 2021 for the first time. People asked “Why are you going to Lubbock, there is nothing there?”. Well while the high plains and…
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Texas Travel – Getting Reacquainted With Home Part VI
East Texas is a vast area of forest and small cities. It is a heavily rural area with only a few larger cities like Tyler in the region. The dense forests add a different kind of beauty that you once again do not see in other regions on Texas. The region has a lot of unique things to do and has a lot of Texas history preserved in museums and historic sites. This area is home to the oldest city in Texas, a historic railroad, remnants of an ancient Native American city, a replica oil boom town, a Civil War Prisoner of War Camp, a rare Texas Casino and so…
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Texas Travel – Getting Reacquainted With Home Part V
North Texas (not the Panhandle) is a another very different region from the others in Texas. In the country side the region is full of prairies and small man made lakes (fun fact there is only one natural lake in Texas and that is Caddo Lake). This region is home to probably the most famous city in Texas and the large metroplex around it. The area is a huge business hub that is home to many fortune 500 companies. beyond the large Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex there are some nice small cities. While most of our visits to North Texas have been to Dallas and Fort Worth we have visited some…
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Status of Travel Today and Tips
I want to give a word of warning and some travel advice related to what the current situation is in travel today. We have continued to travel in the past few months and have run into multiple delays and more flight cancellations than we have ever encountered in our travels. The situation with rental cars is also an issue. Flight Related Issues During the pandemic airlines reduced staff and retired some of their older aircraft. Now that travel has come roaring back (we can confirm that there are MANY more people traveling now than a few months ago) airlines are struggling to handle the load. There also has been a…
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Texas Travel – Getting Reacquainted With Home Part IV
One area we visit multiple times a year and during the pandemic there was no exception is the South-Central region of Texas. While the places in this area might be considered part of other regions for my writings I am considering South-Central Texas as areas around San Antonio, East of I-35 in Austin and West of Houston. This would include cities like San Antonio, Gonzales, Shiner, La Grange, and Schulenburg. Its areas that are not in the Hill Country but not truly on the Gulf Coast as well. We visit San Antonio and cities like La Grange every year as part of quick trips where we visit different sites. Donna…