Monday, June 29, 2009

Traveling without a book



Don't you hate traveling without a good book? I'm not talking about air travel (yes, that too would suck) but getting in your car for a long ass road trip without a book. Even when you have great company in the vehicle it comes a time that conversation lags and you wish you could just turn on your book and emerse yourself in the book.

Last weekend I took my daughter to Houston for a job interview and since my parents have been hanging around the house the last 4 weeks (they are visiting from Puerto Rico) I decided to invite them. I'm not sure if the trip was enjoyable for them and although I want them to feel like they are welcome to join me, I sometimes hestitate to invite them because I feel they will not enjoy themselves. This was the case in this instance.

The interview was over in about 10 minutes (she was called in for a second longer interview later this week - way to go Dre!!) but the trip was about 4.5 hours. We then spent the rest of the day scoping out apartments in case she actually gets the job. The purpose of the trip was just that. If we had some time we would have tried to do some touristy things but unfortunately we didn't. So the parents spent the two days in a car and going from one apartment to another (we saw about 7-8) not so entertaining.

Those 4 1/2 hours of traveling were a bit on the boring side since they would not have appreciated listening to my audiobooks and I would have felt so rude turning on the iPod to continue listening to Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord.

So I survived the trip but it made me realize how much I HATE traveling without a good book.

How about you? Do you have some essential you cannot fathom traveling without?

2 comments:

Brenda said...

I can sooo relate to that! I sometimes feel that a good book is better than a fellow traveler. That's why I love traveling with GP. When I get too chatty he'll say, "oh, let's continue the story." and just turn the cd on. The message being, "I have things to think about", LOL! When there's nothing in the cd player he'll switch it up to "let's listen to some classical", LOL! Hence, it's always good to have a book in the cd player, you never know when you'll be asked to sit quietly, and just drive. =)

Kristen Howe said...

I can relate to your blog post. When I go somewhere, I read, even to the pool, especially if I'm behind in my reading (and the book's due/overdue). Good luck with the job interview and the challenges. How did you get those bar graphs for the challenges too? Nice blog.

 
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