I try not to have regrets for past actions or remorse for lost opportunities, especially when it comes to my travels.
There is one minor regret I have, though, and it could have been avoided if I would have just had $5 on me.
See, I have this thing about not carrying enough cash with me. I like to use a rewards credit card for every purchase. I don't carry much cash and it usually isn't a problem.
But on a baseball trip through Cleveland and Pittsburgh a few years back, my wife and I decided to make a side trip to the Andy Warhol Museum while everyone else had breakfast. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to let my artist wife enjoy her passion while on this trip to make another step in fulfilling a goal of mine to visit every major league ballpark (I've hit 10 teams, 12 parks).
The museum is in a bustling riverfront neighborhood adjacent to PNC Park, home of the Pirates. So I dropped her off to get a head start while I searched for either free street parking or a garage that would take my credit card. That's because by this point, the last day of our two-day trip from our base of Columbus, Ohio, I was broke. But after circling both sides of the river and getting an actually great tour of a very beautiful downtown, I had no luck.
So while she enjoyed Warhol, I saw Pittsburgh through a windshield. I crossed a couple of bridges. I drove through the empty streets of a Sunday morning. Even found the original Primanti Brothers, where we would later have a postgame meal. But I did not see the works of America's modern art genius.
The game was good, the ballpark was beautiful and the weather was perfect. It made for a nice Sunday afternoon in May. But it certainly would have been nice to enjoy Warhol.
Lesson: It's OK to be cheap (that's who I am), but have enough cash to enjoy the trip. And maybe more importantly, parking garages charge when you exit, not upon entrance. I could have borrowed cash from my other travel companions to pay for parking, which is what I ended up doing.
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A few years ago, I took a friend on a road trip. I knew he was low on funds, so when he offered me gas money at one stop, I told him to hold on to it. I didn't think anything of it until a about a year later when I was digging around in my center console -- and came across a ten and a couple of fives. Great timing; I was actually looking for change so I could get out of a parking garage.
ReplyDeleteLong story short: That became my "emergency fund," and I try to replenish it on the occasions I have to use it. It usually has $10-$20 in it, and I try to limit its use to parking. It's saved my hide numerous times. And because it's in the console and out of sight, it's not an easy target for thieves.