When I was young, travel sounded exciting. I could picture myself looking up at the Eiffel Tower or relaxing on a tropical beach in Hawaii. Instead, I changed a lot of diapers and saw a lot of Little League baseball parks.

No regrets, though.

These days, I tend to be a homebody, so I live through my friends’ travels.

I see their photos on social media. They’re walking up mountains, sailing around the Mediterranean, and climbing the steps at an ancient ruin. A voice in my head says I can do the same, but maneuvering the airline industry is a big roadblock.

Recently I attended my niece’s wedding in Virginia. I considered driving, but an 18-hour solo car ride was out of the question. Trains take too long, so flying was my best option.

I looked online to find a flight. The choices were overwhelming. At least a dozen airlines flew where I was going. After a half hour of scrolling through all the departures and arrivals, I found a flight that seemed to be the best fit.

Then the marathon question-and-answer session began. First, I had to choose a departure time. That’s a tricky question in the Houston area.

There’s seldom time when the freeways aren’t jammed. After a half hour, I found a flight that didn’t mean I had to get up at 3 a.m. to catch it.

Then did I want to pay top dollar or travel on a budget. The economy flights were restrictive. You can’t cancel, you can’t upgrade, and you can’t breathe on the plane. Okay, I made that last restriction up, but you get the point.

Then I had to choose a seat.

Each seat had a different price. Want to sit close to the front? That’ll cost you at least $35. Sit in the back where you’re the last one to get off? That’ll only cost you time because you’re the last one to get off a plane with over 200 people jostling overhead baggage.

I chose the option of letting the airline assign me a seat for free, figuring I was traveling alone and didn’t care where I sat.

Then there was the baggage option. The restrictions between checking a bag and having a carry-on were confusing. After 20 minutes of trying to figure out what could and could not be taken on the plane and the exact dimensions of a suitcase to carry with me, I gave up and paid for a checked bag.

Then it was time to book the return flights. At that point, I threw up my hands and called the customer service line. I talked to a real person who reluctantly walked me through the reservations.

He got his revenge, however, when I looked at the connections closer to my departure date. I had less than an hour in Charlotte, N.C. to make a connection. My sister’s familiar with that busy airport, and she said there are no moving sidewalks to move travelers from one terminal to the next.

I played the “I’m a senior citizen” card and asked for a wheelchair to make that connection. Yes, I felt like everyone would be staring. Yes, I felt old, but I had less than 50 minutes to make a connection in a sprawling airport.

From a wanna-be world traveler with stars in her eyes to the nervous lady getting wheeled from Gate A45 to Gate B6 in the Charlotte airport – a distance of 1.2 miles, according to my helper – seeing new places should be a fun adventure.

The first step is finding a way around the hurdles.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.