It had to begin somewhere

I love to travel. However, traveling as a single parent seemed to be out of the question.  I was wrong y’all!  So wrong.

My first adventure came shortly after beginning my career as a designer. I had finally found a job that offered 40 hours with benefits and I couldn’t wait to take vacation. The plan was to take a road trip during the boys Spring Break.  A road trip from San Antonio, Texas to Branson, Missouri… just me and the boy (who was 5 at the time).  In a car, for eleven hours one way. Do you know that it took almost 8 of those hours to even get out of Texas? Clearly I was not thinking when I planned the trip. Even with my poor planning, we had the time of our lives. The trip gave us so many “firsts” together.  He still remembers it to this day, twelve years later.

Looking back on that first trip, there are a couple of things that I would have done differently. First, I would have researched more on what it was going to take to make the drive smoother.  I flew by the seat of my pants on the places we stayed on the drive up and back.  I became a planner after that trip.  Also, I made the mistake of doing too much with too little.  What I mean is that I blew through the cash I had on hand and began using my credit card to do even more than what I had planned.  It took about a year to pay off everything that I charged on that trip. I have never done that again.

The trip to Branson was just the beginning of my love affair with travel.