The "Is It Safe To Travel Yet?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  After a few years of missing our trips to exotic islands in the Caribbean, my wife Carol and I have begun to discuss vacation plans once again.  Only problem is that we are now a few years older and will find it more of a struggle to visit some of our favorite vacation spots.  But, for the first time in many years I have found that I have very little back pain due to my recent Spinal Cord Stimulation surgery.  I have one area on my lower back where I now have a permanent battery in place which powers the stimulator and was rather painful for a week or two, but is now beginning to heal and the pain is lessening.  So...what to do.  Should we make plans to travel with our traveling friends Jere and Sue once again or should we travel by ourselves at least one time to make sure we are both physically able to do so before we create problems for our friends.  Jere and Sue, who were my high school classmates close to 60 years ago, always seem to have the best of times together with my wife and me.  We have traveled with them a few times to Hawaii as well as close to a dozen islands in the Caribbean.  Should we take a cruise or make plans to stay on an island that we have enjoyed in the past?  COVID spoiled our traveling plans with them for a few years and we hope that will not happen again, but with infection numbers creeping back up once again, who knows if airlines will fly to exotic locations anytime soon.  Carol and I have also questioned if we should travel by ourselves to avoid passing on any infections to our friends if we would perhaps come in contact with the virus.  Our favorite destination of St. Martin/Sint Maarten is always an option for the two of us.  But...are we really ready to chance traveling at all?  Carol and I have both experienced travel problems in the past.  She ended up in a hospital in Turks and Caicos when she had to have her appendix removed and I had a bad case of shingles while on the island of Sint Maarten.  Neither experience was pleasant and chancing the same thing happening due to COVID doesn't look inviting.  Perhaps it may be best to save traveling out of the country for a bit later...maybe another year or two.  Looks like vacation with friends to a closer location will have to be good enough for now.  We can have just as much fun even though we aren't in some exotic location.  The sun shines just the same no matter where we vacation!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.