Things I Didn't Do

Listening to a friend talk about all the things they do when they travel got me to thinking about my aversion to partake in the usual tourist activities. I’ve never been a touristy person, preferring to see the countryside instead of the designated pay-to- view places.

Here are a few things I didn’t do in places with lots of things to see and do…though I suppose I should have done some of them.

I lived in Western Washington for 30 years and never once made a trip to the ocean, or rode a ferry boat. If not for carting visitors around, I might never have ridden the elevator to the top of the Space Needle, or cruised the Pike Place Market. Eating fish and chips at Ivar’s and feeding the gulls is far more fun than fighting crowds at those other places.

I lived in the Dallas area for ten years and never visited the Texas Book Depository. As best I can recall, I only entered downtown Dallas once, and that was one time too many. I like Fort Worth, but Dallas is not for me. Eating a chicken fried steak in the stockyards easily beats the heck out of dodging the nutty Dallas traffic.

I spent four days in Orlando a couple of years ago, and never saw Disney World or any of the other theme parks. Didn’t even drive by. Take that, Mickey!

Visited San Francisco and didn’t see either the Golden Gate Bridge, or Alcatraz, though I guess they were somewhere out there in the fog. A few minutes strolling among the fruits and nuts in cold, gloomy, foul-smelling, downtown San Francisco had me more than anxious to leave town.

I recently spent three days in Nashville and didn’t visit the Grand Old Opry, or even enter the downtown area. Forty-nine years ago, before the confusing freeways were built, I drove by the original Grand Old Opry in the middle of the night. I wasn’t impressed then, so I didn’t think I’d be impressed now.

Drove right by the Clinton Library in Little Rock and didn’t even take the van off cruise control. It was early afternoon, and there were two cars in the parking lot, so apparently I wasn’t the only one unimpressed by the monument to the lecherous felon from Arkansas.

Spent 30 months in Europe and never left Germany…but that was partly because my security clearance made travel difficult. I did get to the top of the highest mountain in Germany, from which you could see mountains in seven countries, and that was all I cared to see of them.

I suppose some folks would be terribly disappointed to have been to those places and not taken in all the sights, but I don’t feel I’ve missed anything. I guess I don’t hear the same tunes everyone else does, or if I do, I’m not in step.