We recently went on a road trip with neighbors. We’d been casual friends, but had never done anything together except for a casual dinner night out. This was a one-week journey to a national park. We agreed to pay for gasoline and our neighbors did the driving in their car.

Everything went well the first day until we arrived at the hotel desk to check in. The clerk said our reservations were for the next day, and she wasn’t sure she could find us rooms for the night. Before she could say another word, our neighbors went into a loud fit of complaints and threats. Despite the fact that she showed us the computer print out proving we had arrived a day early, our neighbors kept up their harangue.

We were struck speechless at such unnecessary anger. The clerk seemed to weather the storm and clicked keys on her computer. She hushed the complainers by saying she had two rooms available, not in the main hotel, but in a cabin area a few minutes’ hike away. We were all tired, and our neighbors seemed to quiet down a bit.

It sounds a bit crazy to encourage seniors to travel this spring, because the economy may sink to its worse shape since the Great Depression of 1929 to 1939. But our theory is based on what an old general once said: "The enemy is at my rear, pressing my right flank and closing in on my left. The situation is desperate, so I shall attack immediately!"

The situation is similar today, and the tendency is for us to fearfully hunker down and cut back on all kinds of spending. We don't realize that all that inaction will do is make the situation worse. We, especially seniors who were poor kids during the Great Depression, and have seen many ups and downs in the economy ever since, should be the first to break away from the pack.

We cheat at casinos, especially in Las Vegas. We don’t commit sin with money in Sin City, just the crime of doggie bagging. As frequent diners there and at casino buffets elsewhere, we’ve developed food filching into a fine art. No arrests yet, but considering the Mafia history of Vegas, we could be risking broken kneecaps or worse, anonymous burial plots in the desert. After all, didn’t the Mob off Bugsie for stealng?

At bit of history that led to our criminal ways. As retirees, our primary travel spot has become Las Vegas, because it’s one quick hour’s flight away. In our first active retirement years, we went all over the world ... England, France, Russia, Italy, South America, Alaska, Hawaii and many more exotic lands. It was great fun while it lasted. While WE lasted.