They wouldn't arrange something like that--too far according to their criteria--but I can tell you I spent hours and hours and hours
arranging the trip.

The trip preparation and research to be ready to maximize your time and pleasure on your trip. Memorized the map of Paris, by having the map on dining room table and posted on my office wall. Would stare at it as I ate and worked. I can still close my eyes 20 years later and see that map.

international...no way! I don't want to be booked into a country at war, cause the travel agency gets some sort of commission!

Wouldn't want to pay top dollar on a gamble.

For example, many popular vacation destinations involve warm weather. I've got a melting point of about 80 outside and would prefer to go somewhere colder. That would eliminate many destinations.

I wouldn't mind some places but don't send me to New Orleans in July.

Wherever I go, there I am.

I travel light and I don't like vacation planning. The only thing I can't forget when I leave home is my meds and my big jacket. I can sleep anywhere in my big jacket if I must.

Packing to go on vacation ought to take less than an hour and I don't make reservations.

When I was young and single, pretty much everything I needed I kept in my little car. Sometimes I lived in my car. I had a smallish duffel bag too which was always packed.

My attitude towards travelling has been a source of friction in my marriage. My wife thinks my parents were horribly irresponsible when she hears stories of my childhood vacations. Pretty much me and my siblings were on our own past the age of five when it came to packing. We'd considered ourselves lucky if we got to stay in a hotel with hot running water maybe one night a week. Some of the decrepit old hotels we stayed at made the worst Motel 6 you ever saw look like luxury suites, especially in Mexico and Europe. People hearing the extent of our travels would often assume my parents had money. No, they did not. We didn't eat in restaurants, we didn't visit places with an admission fee, we avoided any place where people might expect a tip, if we had a car, we never paid for parking.

My great grandma's house had no running water and we slept on the floor when we visited her, so why should travel anywhere else be different?

I could enjoy a random travel company vacation, but why should I? And I hate, hate, hate flying.

A fine young gentleman decided he wanted to go on a short vacation, so he went into a travel agency.

"How about the Adventure Trip to Nowhere? It's a four-hour trip down a scenic river, with a champagne toast at the end of it. And it's this weekend!" That sounded good, so he signed up. "Be at this location," handing the man a card, "at 9 am Saturday morning."

He arrived at the location at 9 am Saturday morning. Immediately after he stepped out of his car, four huge guys jumped out of the woods. They beat the living shit out of him, tied him to a log and threw him in the river.

The log almost immediately went into a five-mile-long stretch of Class IV rapids. The guy was tossed and turned, ran into rocks and stumps, nearly drowned four times, and was knocked unconscious twice.

Finally the log came to a calm stretch of the river. The poor guy was bleeding from everywhere that wasn't bruised black. All his clothes are ripped off and he was on the verge of a concussion. He looked up and saw a man wearing a Donald Trump t-shirt tied to another log and yelled to him, "do we get champagne now?"

"We didn't last year."