Amy Currioman » Travel

Please let me sleep

Amy — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:52:10 +0000

My boss wanted me to attend a business related convention to represent our company and I reluctantly agreed to do it. He had arranged for me to share a motel room with three other ladies I had never met before, in order to save money. Well, I arrived last night and met the ladies for the first time. They had already met each other and had gone out for drinks and were feeling no pain. They were laughing and giggling and hollering at each other to “Shut up” until about 2am. When the room finally quieted down and they went to sleep two of them snored quite loudly. I spent a sleepless night sleeping in a too hard bed with a total stranger, listening to the sounds of fire engines screaming past and the snoring of my room mates. I will be very glad to get home and sleep in my own bed as soon as possible.

Fun

Amy — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:57:39 +0000

What I did enjoy about my trip to Monhegan Island was when we took a walk through the woods along a trail and we looked off into the woods. We could see where other people had gone into the woods and had made tiny little fairy houses of twigs and pieces of bark and moss, pebbles and acorns. They were very whimsical and very cute. I like to think that maybe one day I’ll have a granddaughter to play with and we can go out into the woods behind our house and use found materials to make our own little fairy houses. I think that would be fun.

Troubled travel industry

Amy — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:45:53 +0000

I frequently wonder what’s going to happen with the travel industry. I get the distinct impression that more people are struggling financially and are therefore less likely to travel simply because of that one factor. In addition to their financial struggles I am frequently exposed to news articles about how many people are feeling that the extra security measures taken by TSA are overzealous and inappropriate. Passengers are asked to walk through the special screening machine that basically lets the TSA agent see what you look like naked and a lot of people are unhappy with that. Others feel that there negative health consequences to be exposed to whatever radiation is used to create those images.

And I’m pretty frequently seeing/hearing news articles about particular passengers that have been upset over measures taken by TSA. For example one woman was really upset that she was forced to remove her Breast Prosthesis; another woman was upset that her five year old child was patted down by an agent. I can understand all of these people being upset; I would be upset too.In But the fact is that the terrorists are crazy people and they will use children and women as suicide bombers and I think that’s going to hurt the travel industry for many years to come.

Just relax

Amy — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:29:47 +0000

We were warned before we went to Monhegan Island that there was no electricity on the island anywhere and that included the hotel room. We were told that was part of the romance of the island. Well I thought it was charming at first but when we finally were shown our bedrooms and was not particularly happy to discover that we had a communal bathroom that we had to share with about ten other couples.

Once it got dark at night there was nothing to do but go to bed and go to sleep. Sure we were given oil lanterns to see by but they did not give off very much light and pretty much the only thing they’re good for is to help you find your way to the bathroom. And although we slept with the windows open to let in the fresh air, it was a hot night and I did not sleep very well.

Quaint

Amy — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:18:02 +0000

When we arrived at Monhegan we had to walk up a short hill, The hotel we were going to stay in was the first building on the right. I was grateful that we didn’t have to walk very far because there were no motor vehicles on the island except one truck and that was used to shuttle people’s luggage around the island. Monhegan is a small island and the people there get around simply by walking or riding bicycles. I know that sounds like a quaint and romantic idea. But I was really surprised when I learned in the wintertime the children of the island have to be sent to the mainland for school. They stay with relatives during that time, but I just can’t imagine as a parent sending my young child away to live on the mainland with someone else for the entire winter.

Cold and wet

Amy — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:12:34 +0000

I’ve only been to Monhegan Island a couple of times. The first time it was a weekend getaway gift from my in-laws where they took possession of our infant son and sent my husband and I away on a weekend trip accompanied by my husband’s grandparents. We had to take an old mail boat ferry across the channel. If I recall correctly it was over an hour-long trip; it was cold and it was wet. We sat on the bow of the ship and shivered in the cold. I wanted to go down below bt my husband told me that if we went below that we would get seasick so we stayed up on the bow and tried to make small talk.

I don’t like green tea

Amy — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:08:20 +0000

The first time I tried a green tea it was shortly after my arrival on Monhegan Island after a very bumpy boat ride. My stomach was rather queasy but my friends told me that if I got some food on my stomach that I’d start feeling better pretty quickly. So we went to a restaurant to have breakfast and the only tea they had available to drink was green tea. I’d never tried green tea before and I don’t like coffee so I went ahead and decided to try the green tea. I asked the server what most people put in their tea and she smiled and said that most people will drink it plain. I tried a sip of it; it was really nasty so I tried putting sugar and cream in it and it still tasted really nasty.

Hiking club

Amy — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:32:35 +0000

This guest post from Edgardo Rosa

My wife and I love hiking, even though some people don’t really consider it a sport. It’s been a really great way to keep in shape these last few years and we usually get to travel to find a great hike which is an added bonus! Recently I subscribed us to Wireless internet which means we have mobile connections wherever we go. After a few weeks of spontaneously emailing friends from the car on the way to a hike to ask them to join we had a revelation: let’s start a hiking club! We know plenty of people who like it as much as we do and there’s no reason we can’t plan the! hikes since we’re doing so already, so we figured it’d be a great way to see our friends and get some exercise. My wife’s been joking around about designing team t-shirts and even having a listserv so everyone can communicate. I think it sounds like a lot of fun and I’m excited to get a group together to start hiking every weekend!

Break down

Amy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:49:37 +0000

Sue decided to spend a week in Chicago, visiting with Aunt June. Aunt June hasn’t been feeling well lately, and wasn’t able to come visit with us like she usually does. We’ve been quite unhappy with air travel of late, so Sue decided to drive up instead of flying. So Sue borrowed my EZ Pass and drove to Chicago. We figured that was the best idea because that would make her departure and arrival days and times flexible.

While Sue was in Chicago, she was driving Aunt June around town to run some errands and her car overheated. She took it to a Chicago auto repair shop and they told her that she needed a new water pump. I had to give Sue my credit card information so she could get the car fixed. That’s one of the drawbacks to taking your own car on a trip! Maybe next time she’ll rent a car for the trip. Getting a rental with unlimited mileage just might be the best way to go; if it breaks down you don’t have to pay to get it fixed, you just trade it in for a different rental car and you’re on your way!

My Heart Goes Out to Chile

Amy — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:06:57 +0000

There was a terrible earthquake in Chile. The news reports say that the earthquake was almost 1,000 stronger than the one that hit Haiti 2 months ago. This earthquake was an 8.8 magnitude! I sure hope that there is not the same level of devastation and loss of life that Haiti has suffered. My heart goes out to the good people of Chile.