2024, Travel, Uncategorized

Travel Anxiety

20 Comments

Today is driving day for me. I am heading back home to ND. It is about a seven hour drive. I will stop once or twice on the way. It will be good to be home. I have travelled more than usual over the past six months, with three trips to Brookings SD, and one trip to Boston.

I have to fly to Dallas, TX the last week of October for a conference of Psychology regulatory boards. I am truly dreading the trip, mainly due to the destination. I put off making plane reservations until last Monday, and was quite relieved when I got it done. I did it online as usual. One of my worst fears was realized yesterday when I took a look at the reservation and saw that I had misspelled my first name. This entailed a text conversation with someone at the airline who fixed it up rather handily, much to my surprise. I am not afraid of flying, but of the preliminaries to the flights.

I don’t know why this all makes me so anxious, as I have never really had messed up reservations in the past, and things can be fixed. I suppose I could do this all through a travel agent, but we don’t have many in our town. I am happy that the Dallas trip looks ok on paper, at least. After that I just want to stay home for a while.

What about traveling makes you anxious? Tell about good trips and less than good trips. Any tips about Dallas?

20 thoughts on “Travel Anxiety”

  1. I don’t like flying. It really scares me. I guess I’m with those who think that if humans were meant to fly we’d have wings.

    Never been to Texas, so I’m no help there. It’s not number one on my list of destinations. Neither is Florida.

    It was a really amazing experience to be in Ireland last spring. The first week we were there was really fun for me, but the second week was sadly impacted by having a terrible case of food poisoning (seafood) and having to live with it while still traveling. The flights all went well, so that was reassuring. I was glad to be home.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. If it helps, I went on my first plane ride when I was in eighth grade. A very small six seater, piper cub into the Grand Canyon. I was a little worried about it and I used that phrase if we were meant to fly, we’d have wings. My father turned to me and said “and if you were meant to ride a bicycle, you’d have wheels instead of feet?” Most spectacular (and succinct) piece of advice my father ever gave me. Not that I love flying.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  2. Not much about travel makes me anxious except driving in bad weather. I get a bit nervous driving to the airport because I don’t want to be late and miss the flight. But we always err on the side of caution and allow an hour or so for traffic delays, etc.

    But I’m not a fan of flying anymore. The whole TSA security thing insults my intelligence and makes me feel like a criminal cow. (think about it). Seats are incredibly uncomfortable unless you pay big bucks for three inches more leg room and and a glass of wine.

    Delays, missed connections, cancellations. The business seems to be getting worse, not better.

    I guess I get anxious on canoe trips too, mainly trying to make sure I don’t injure myself. But it’s a positive anxiety because I have total control of each step, each paddle, each decision.

    The last really good flight/trip I took was to Paris from Chicago on Air France. Pre-9/11 so no TSA. Comfortable seats, and we got a split of Veuve Clicqout to drink as our complimentary beverage. The whole trip was fantastic (as I remember it, anyway).

    Scariest (not so good trip) was a flight from Spokane to MSP when we had to fly through a huge T-storm and the plan suddenly dropped straight down about 100 feet in two seconds. And a long period of turbulance almost as bad as that. Not as bad as a door plug popping off in mid-air, or a wheel falling off, but scary enough.

    Give me a car and a map any day.

    Chris in Owatonna

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  3. I had to actually think hard about this. In terms of total trips, I’ve never had a really bad one where it was just one thing after another. Even when bad things happen on trips (like my first trip to Africa when my luggage didn’t get to me until almost 5 days into the trip) it never negates the whole trip for me.

    I did have a very bad flight coming home from Colorado in 1989. The wheels came down, but apparently the light or whatever indicator confirms that the wheels were locked was not working. So we did circle the airport a few times, women were told if they had on nylon stockings to take them off, they did the whole how-to-put-your-head-down speech. The wheels were locked, so the landing was fine, but when the plane landed and turned on the runway back toward the terminal, we could see the masses of emergency vehicles that were waiting in case the wheels had not locked. And as if that weren’t enough, I was actually flying on someone else’s frequent flyer miles with a fake ID. So if the plane had gone down, and I had perished, it would’ve taken forever for my loved ones to work it all out and I’m sure there would’ve been no insurance.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    The anxiety I have about travel is usually about the booking process. I make mistakes filling out forms, even on line. I just cannot pick out the visual detail. So being certain that I have it right is a challenge. Otherwise, I just feel anxious in the moment of boarding an airliner and getting going. I only book with established airlines who have a reputation to protect. Only once did I book on a lesser known airline which was a mess in all ways. Often driving is just less stressful as long as the weather is drivable. Airlines are so troubled at this time.

    OT: I am at my art retreat all week. Lou is now in Iowa with his cousin and having fun. Phoebe is with him. I think the change of venue is good for him, and I know it is good for me! It has been a wildly busy week, though. Just getting them out the door yesterday morning was an event all by itself. But as of yesterday I could just do my own thing. WhooHoo. Last night we went out to eat as a group. There is a a trip to Ireland in the works, although still just tentative plans, not confirmed. I hope it happens. It is nearly a year in the future so I can make plans for Lou’s care here.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  5. I don’t have anxiety about flying – don’t even mind some turbulence. As I get older, the really long flights get more exhausting. Over the many years I have flown, the food and service has really gone downhill. The boarding process drives me crazy. Many years ago the airlines would board first class first, then start at the back of the plane and work forward. Boarding from the front to the back takes SO much longer. I only carry on what will fit under a seat – putting stuff in the overhead bins is difficult for a short person.

    Less than good flights? I have been on three international flights where there was a medical emergency requiring the plane to land at the nearest airport, meaning long delays. The worst was on a flight home from Ireland last year. We were near Greenland when the emergency occurred. Iceland was the nearest airport but the weather was bad so we headed back to Dublin (a 2 hour detour), sat in the plane in Dublin for over an hour. Once back in the air we were told the flight crew would “time out” before reaching Mpls so we had to land in Boston to change crew. Again we were stuck on the plane for over an hour. Finally landed in Mpls about 6 hours late. Ugh!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. O.T. – Yesterday I received an email from a woman here on the West Side that I have known for years, but who I haven’t talked to in years, at least five or six. She asked if I buy stuff from Amazon. I thought that was a strange question, but I figured it was pretty harmless, so I responded that yes, I occasionally buy stuff from Amazon. Why do you want to know?

    This morning I got this response: “Glad to hear from you Margaret, I need to get a Sephora gift card for a Friend’s daughter who had cervical cancer, it’s her birthday but I can’t do this now because the stores around here are out of stock, I tried purchasing online but unfortunately no luck with that.

    Can you help me order it from amazon to her email directly? I’ll pay you back. Kindly let me know if you can handle this so I can send you her email.”

    At this point, I began to smell a rat, but thought I’d play along so I wrote back and said I’d be glad to help. Send me whatever information I need, and I’ll take care of it. We can talk about repayment later.

    A few minutes later I received this: ” Amount needed is $200
    Her email address is julespayne7@hotmail.com
    The message i want is ” Happy birthday, You deserve the very best on this day”

    At this point I thought I had better call Sandy. She was as surprised to get a call from me as I had been to receive the email from her. Apparently her email account has been hacked.

    While I was on the phone with Sandy, I got another email from the spammer asking whether I had any luck with the gift card. I responded “Not yet. I don’t know what kind of card you want.” They promptly responded: “Sephora email delivery! You can choose any design”

    Quite the elaborate hoax. I suppose the way to get access to my bank account is to want to repay me electronically. Should I tell her I’ll just swing by and pick it up a check? She lives just a few blocks away. Ha!

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  7. I have the same anxiety as you do, Renee, about setting up things online, making a mistake – so glad you had someone good to help you fix it. If and when I travel again, I will always enlist help of some kind, perhaps my computer guru! (who spent a couple of hours with me on Tuesday getting everything set up correctly on all my devices, now that I have this smart phone…)

    I believe I’ve only been through Dallas on the 1998 train trip…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. i have traveled a lot and while i remember the flights with turbulence only one qualified as disruptive. the puddle jumpers in indonesia and thailand were sketchy but fun
    a long flight for me is over 24 hours
    england or germany is a piece of cake
    california once seemed long but no more. when you get up to the top of the clouds and then back down within two or three hours it gives me time to do something with a 2 hr slot. dont get those often, 12 hours leaves time for a nap, 24 i can bring a bag of chores

    going to dallas wear a vikings jersey and a kamala harris button. theyll leave you alone

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  9. About an hour ago, I arrived home after driving 10 hours from New England.
    My anxiety about driving is getting the potty breaks correctly done. I try to make sure that the facilities are not single person type. It’s a horrible feeling having “urgency” while waiting in line.
    It was a good trip. When I reached Columbus, Ohio, the odometer turned over to 144,000 miles. I stopped and got a picture but I’m unsure if it had a proper focus. Baboon Bible readers might recognize that number from the book of Revelation. If something heavenly spectacular occurs, I’m 😇taking credit.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Krista just sent me a couple of lovely photos she has taken with her phone of the Northern Lights over Northfield. Is this what you’re taking credit for?

      Liked by 5 people

      Reply

      2. No. Although my daughter sent me pictures of the lights at Fishkill, New York. I talked to her an hour ago and she described the whole neighborhood being outside and awestruck by the sights.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

Leave a reply to xdfben Cancel reply