Okay so technically I’m well past TURNING 40, but 40’s a nice round number and plus it gives me a chance to share one of my favorite YouTube clips of all time
So if you’ll forgive this more lifestyle post that is only tangentially travel related, I was pondering my “advancing” age and came up with 4 things I no longer do that I’m 40
1. Ride spinny rides at amusement parks
I still enjoy roller coasters (mostly) but I have given up on the Scrambler and the Twister and whatever name it goes by. We were at a company picnic this weekend at Coney Island which is where I first started thinking about this topic
The kids loved them and my wife was coerced into going but I… well I just stayed on the sidelines 🙂
2. Sleep anywhere but a bed
Another thing I’ve stopped doing is sleeping anywhere but in a bed. I’ve never been a big camping guy (hello poison ivy all over my face at my first Boy Scout camp) but as I’ve gotten older I just found I hurt more and more if I even try it.
The only exceptions is that occasionally I will take a red eye flight and “sleep” on the plane
(SEE ALSO: 4 tips to survive a red eye in economy)
Though I gotta say I prefer that flat bed business class (or first class!)
3. Pull an “all nighter”
Along a similar vein, I am well past the time in my life where I enjoy staying up all night, whether that’s for work, school, surfing the Internet or playing video games. I think I’m helped by the fact that my wife and I have a fairly standard routine where 95% of the time we go to bed together at the same time. Both of us have mentioned before that if one of us is out of the house (traveling, usually), that the other has trouble sleeping
Gotta say, I’m really a fan of 8 hours of sleep!
4. Sweat the small stuff
#4 on the list of things I don’t do now that I’m 40 is a bit more of a conglomeration of a few different ideas, some of which I’m better at than others. I try not to sweat the small stuff – which includes things like
- Taking it personally when people leave me angry and/or insulting blog comments
- Stress over buying / getting things
- Feeling like I have to explain my decisions to people
- Overly worrying over a few dollars, whether that’s part of planning a trip or on a trip itself
Like this time when I made my wife wander all around the streets of Old Dubai trying to find food that I felt was “cheap enough” (after 45 minutes of wandering we ended up at the exact same place we started 😀 )
Though in my defense, at the time I was ONLY 39 years and 11 months 😛
What about you, any of my readers who are “of a certain age” – what are some things that you did when you were younger that you no longer do?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
It’s okay to sleep in, relax and not plan every minute of our vacation.
I was a student at OSU when Mike Gundy was the QB there, so needless to say, “I’m a man” whose well over 50 now.
To make this travel related, maybe we can reminisce about air travel in the 80’s, like when AA got the whole frequent flyer mileage ball rolling. What a colossal snowball it is now.
IIRC, I skipped a day of class in 1987 or 1988 to drive back to Tulsa to hear [American Airlines CEO] Robert Crandall speak at a business luncheon. Until that day, I never understood why a CEO could possibly be worth a 7-figure salary. Afterwards, my conclusion was I absolutely wouldn’t want to be CEO of a rival airline (because Bob was out to eat your lunch.. and extra olive).
Your article gave me a smile, even though I haven’t been 40 for … oh, about a dozen years now 😀 I still love camping and sleeping on the ground, but I’ve got my own laundry list of “Nah, not doin’ THAT!” items (including rollercoasters).
Mine seem to increasingly revolve around the potential for physical injury that would be tough to recover from — e.g., horseback riding, even though I used to LOVE to ride. Now I calculate just how far off the ground I’d be, how hard the ground is going to be when I hit it, and how many bones I might break in the process … and do I REALLY wanna spend the next 12 months in a cast, in rehab, doing PT? 🙁 Bleah.
I especially loved the parts about “not buying/getting things” and “not worrying over a few dollars” — amen to that! The older you get, the more you realize you really don’t need all that “stuff” that used to seem so important. And while it’s always good to be smart with your money … well, life is short. Eat the cake. Take the vacation. Fly first-class (on award tickets, of course) and stay in the nice hotels (on points 😀 ). Memories are priceless.
Very well said!
(Oops, make that “haven’t been 40 for TWO dozen years” 😀 Must’ve been wishful thinking at work there!
Still camp at 60 although the air mattress is thicker than foam pads were at age 40 and younger.
Don’t do amusement park rides much as the thrill is minimal and don’t want to get jostled/thrown about like the younger folks do.
Don’t try new things like skiing, etc that I may have tried at younger age because I don’t want to have to recover from broken bones, etc at my age.
I am from Brazil but share with you exactly the SAME items! Including making the wife hover for > 1 hour in a beach boardwalk to find cheaper food… Boy you are right on the spot.