When You Are Too Old to Travel, Things Get Complicated
An invitation to a ‘destination wedding” reveals the peril of traveling when you are old
My wife and I looked at each other as soon as we heard the details. My best friend’s daughter is getting married this November in Colorado, and it’s not just anywhere in Colorado but a small town at 8,000 feet. My daughter went to college in Boulder, and I have skied out west many times. But that was when I was younger. For us “flat-landers,” that elevation is almost Machu Picchu. Yes, we do get altitude sickness.
Friends and relatives were declining in droves. Some claimed no one to watch their dogs. Others said it was too far or too high, or they had a prior commitment. My friend and his wife attended my daughter’s “destination” wedding last year, but that was in Austin, Texas. We owed them and couldn’t refuse.
The logistics are awful. The town is a three-to-four-hour drive from Denver up mountain roads. We have enough trouble driving now on the interstate in Florida. Thus renting a car was out of the question, and an Uber would be cost-prohibitive. The solution is one of the bride’s friends will pick us up near Denver, and we will be their passengers. This solution presented us with other potential problems.
