How much would you pay to go to the moon?

I traveled a lot when I was young and single. I took many trips to Florida and one or two to Southern California and Mexico with my high school friend Debbie, who was a year older. I also made several trips to San Francisco with friends and also with a boyfriend who moved there from Boston. (We visited each other a couple of times and then it was over.)

One year, shortly after college, my friend Julie and I flew to LA, rented a car and drove up that stunning Pacific coastline to San Francisco, staying with friends in both cities. I went to Jamaica and Colorado with boyfriends, and to NYC, DC, and New Orleans with girlfriends.

I liked road trips but I really loved going to the airport. It was so exciting getting on a plane in Boston and getting off somewhere completely different – with different weather. It was exhilarating. I prided myself on never checking a bag. I was really good at packing everything in my carry-on.

It’s amazing how much your feelings about air travel can change in thirty years. Now, I really don’t enjoy getting on a plane. I can handle the 3-hour flight to Florida, but anything longer than that is a real deterrent in terms of planning a trip.

So, this is all a long way of saying that I probably would’ve paid a few thousand dollars, when I was in my twenties, to go to the moon. I mean, come on, it’s the moon! The 3-day flight would not have stopped me back then.

Now, I can’t imagine being in an aircraft for that long. It sounds very uncomfortable. And how do they pee?