Why Do We Travel? --How It Started

It was a business trip, one that would take us out of the country (other than visiting Canada) and across the pond as they say. Bob had a sales representative, David, in London who convinced him it would be to his advantage to set up a booth at a trade show that was happening in London and would attract a lot of European interest.

Passports in hand we flew to New York and then on to London and got our first taste of jet lag. Not only were we exhausted from not being able to sleep on the plane from all the excitement and, I'll admit, anxiety but when we found David and were seated in his car, we were completely disoriented. David was sitting on the wrong side of the car and horrors, he was driving on the left side of the road!

I blame the jet lag for the terror when I looked down and saw how fast he was going. The speedometer showed the needle at 100! It was a few days later when I realized that the speedometer was in kilometers not miles and he was really only doing about 60 on the freeway.

It was early morning when we arrived so before settling us into our hotel room which wouldn't be ready until the afternoon, David drove us around London pointing out landmarks to us. I could not begin to tell you what we saw. Between being on the wrong side of the road, watching the speedometer and struggling to stay awake, I was useless.

Finally, we made it to the hotel and checked our bags until we could get into the room. David walked with us to the nearby tube station. Tube? He explained that it was the subway fondly called the Tube by the Brits. We changed some money and he showed us how to buy a ticket. That would be our transportation for the duration of our stay. David would be coming into town by train from his home outside London to get to the trade show.

It was a great trip. While Bob worked the show for a couple of days, I ventured out on my own only getting disoriented once. I got off at the wrong station and was followed by a woman obviously begging. She kept saying something in such a cockney accent that I couldn't understand her. I finally back tracked and got back on the Tube and found my stop.

For a few days after the show, we visited the must sees in London and promised ourselves that we would return. And we did. Many times. The last time we saw David, years after Bob had retired, he laughed heartily when we told him that all of the world traveling we'd done was his fault. He'd gotten us started.

Now I'm wondering who I can blame for my chocolate addiction.