When I was younger I thought that road trips were absolutely miserable.
I really did not enjoy sitting still for longer than an hour or two at a time.
When I was dating somebody who lived 3 hours away, I honestly thought that I was trekking across the world to go visit him. These days I have a completely different mindset about spending time on long travel excursions. In fact, I just finished taking a cross country train ride that spanned several days to complete. I would tell you that the trip was absolutely amazing, if it wasn’t for the terrible indoor air quality contained on the train. If you have ever been stuck in a public transportation vehicle where you have no control over the indoor air quality or air temperature, you know how uncomfortable it can be. You quickly start to become claustrophobic when you cannot breathe easily and you are sweating in your seat. This is something I realized within 5 minutes of climbing aboard the swelteringly hot train. As I climbed up the steps to the vehicle I realized that the indoor air was going to be stagnant and humid. It felt like there was absolutely no air conditioning system whatsoever. I tried to settle down into my seat and get comfortable despite the unfortunate indoor air quality. However, as more passengers filed on, the indoor air quality only declined. Let me tell you, after two days of sitting on a stinky, sweaty train with no semblance of fresh air or circulation… I began reconsidering my opinion on traveling again.