The Money Side of Travel: dealing with disappointment

I have read countless posts by as many travel bloggers about how you 'don't need money to travel.' However, every single one of these respected bloggers also as a post about saving up to go on a trip or budgeting for trips.  How can it be that you need to dedicate time to saving and budgeting if you don't need many for travel?  The answer is that while you don't need to be a millionaire or "from money," you definitely need to be able to pay for your transport, lodging, food, etc.  Sometimes when you're on a deadline, the desire to go someplace doesn't match up to the cost.

Someday I'll find this spot in Santo Domingo, Photo credit

 I recently had the opportunity to spend 4 days in the Dominican Republic with some friends of mine.  One of the guys is from the DR and the other three are visiting.  I knew from the get-go that I wasn't going to be able to go for the full trip. Two days ago and after a couple beers, I checked the cost of flights to prove that it was financially impossible for me to show up after my experiment finished and in time for the last half of the trip.  To my surprise, the flights weren't that bad.  Not great but doable.   And so began a battle of wills and logistics.

Logistics turned into a nightmare. Between the multi-city flights, parking, transportation, and the fact that I've already allocated all of my vacation days for this year all ready, I was beginning to feel like Napoleon at Waterloo.  48 hours of convert war through multiple websites and scheming it looked like everything was going to workout. I was escaping to the DR in the middle of the NY winter! and then I wasn't...

The logistics won in the last round.  No rebuttal. No instant replay.  I couldn't afford the trip anymore.  I was crushed...am still crushed (this happened in the early hours of the morning). As disappointed as I am that the glorious Caribbean sun has evaded me.  I'm flat out distraught that I got my hopes up, and my friends' hopes up only to have them dashed by a stupid piece of plastic.  I'm angry and upset and disappointed and dealing with the guilt of disappointing my friends.  I fully admit the on the list of top 20 responsible life choices this trip wasn't even in the running but it still would have been amazing. 

DR you may have delayed my arrival but make no mistake I will be flying in sooner than later! To my friends flying in today, Diviértanse!