Forgive my prolonged absence!
Life gets in the way of the best intentions, but now I have a little item to share with those faithful readers who return to this would-be traveler's niche.
Early April found me flying -- in a little prop plane -- from Philadelphia into New York's Albany airport which served as gateway to a weekend in the nearby Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.
The occasion was the first-ever Dulye Leadership Experience (DLE), a weekend retreat wherein selected Syracuse University students and DLE faculty (comprised of individuals from a diverse cross-section of arts and sciences disciplines ---myself included in the latter arts division) converged to share ideas on intellectual and professional growth, leadership, life lessons, the two-way dynamic of mentoring, and ultimately the value of expanding one's circle of friends to include old (well, a little older, anyway!) and young.
DLE was the lifelong dream of Linda Dulye, a proud Syracuse alum, and the human electrical bolt who funded then charged the weekend with excitement, fun, laughter, some growing pains, and ---by Sunday afternoon, pure exultation.
So.... one of the light moments came when Linda, her mother Ann, myself and another faculty member, Sue (whose last name I withhold "to protect the innocent") found ourselves with a dilemma. There were four grown women and only three available beds.
"You can share my bed," said Ann, innocent as dew on a rose petal.
Linda, Sue and I all shot glances at each other... Share a bed!!!!!?????....
None of us minded sharing a room, or sharing a meal or sharing an embarrassing, self-effacing story from the past! But SHARE A BED???
Visions of colliding cold, clammy feet, and snoring nostrils, and just that too-close-for-comfort body heat had all three of us running for the couch. Well, in the end it was Sue who ended up on a couch... a couch that dipped in the midsection and gave her premature osteoporosis and allowed possibly a single hour of sleep... if she was lucky.
Ah, dear Ann, we dearly love you.... but love has its limits!
In that giddy way that happens when there has been too little sleep and a dire situation has been relegated to the night before, Linda, Sue-the-Bed-Martyr and I found hilarity in the recent memory and shared a great big giggle as reward for that momentary fright (still laughing...............!!!!!).
So this traveler's advice: Never underestimate the great appeal of a sleeping bag, or better, an Aerobed! And at very least, be sure to pack a protective pair of warm socks.....