Gio Barela

I am a 27 year old mother of four children transitioning off of welfare. My goals are to become a news broadcaster, columnist and poet.  My dreams are to say to the world and young mothers like myself, that you can overcome obstacles such as poverty and lack of formal education, achieve what you desire, and be heard  !! 

With travel for nuttin', I hope to offer the world  some humorous as well as informative stories about traveling without much money. Please enjoy this excerpt of trippin and travelin for nuttin'.  for more stories, info, suggestions and conments tune in to www. poormagazine. com. Above all thanks for your  interest... without my readers, there would be nuttin......Much Love.... Gio Barela. 

It  all started mid March or April, one of those months that quickly passed on.  It was one  of my off days,  when  mom and I,  at separate homes were watching the PRICE IS RIGHT, when mom asked me to get the address and send for tickets to the show, 15 to be exact. So I did  just that. May, or was it June  crept up on us. About 6 weeks later, when I got home, and picked up  my  mail, I was curious about  one envelope with  my name on it, with  no return address. I opened the envelope and there out of the blue, were the PRICE IS RIGHT tickets, along with directions printed on a another card like paper. 

 Soon after that, I let mom know that we have tickets for Monday, July 5th. Up until the Thursday  before, she was all for the trip , until everyone we invited gave a sad story, like July 5th? There's going to be a lot of traffic,  cops are going to be out, people drinking and driving, and everybody celebrating the 4th. No, I can't go, but why don't you guys come over, and let's have a Bar-B-Que here. My mom's hairdresser invited us to go to GREAT AMERICA  on the  3rd and even offered to give me a  free ticket if I went with them. I thought, What  does that have to do with  going to Los Angeles for the holiday, which was July 4th-6th. Last year we went to Los Angeles, Knott's Berry Farm to be exact, and no one worried about half this stuff then, so what's the problem now? 

So to make a long story shorter... I went myself. Yes, solo, to the city  of Los Angeles or, was it Hollywood? 
The lady who sold me my airline tickets said "What I'd give to leave four kids, a mate and life's worries and go by myself on any given day. I would sell my soul to the devil himself, if I had the opportunity to do so." Then she wished me a nice trip by saying, "Enjoy". My first trip solo, my third trip within a month. After this point, the colunm 
TRAVEL FOR NUTTIN' was conceived. This experience is  how I came to the conclusion of sharing my trips with others. 

everybody wanted me to stay home... 

The kids went to the sitter yesterday. I was given a few dollars from the guy friend, you know,  ok, ok, I'm not denying him, my boyfriend, when he was trying to convince me to stay. I had 3 hours to be on the plane, and here he was, doing everything to make me change my mind, but I have to say, my mind was made up. On the other hand, I wanted him to go too. He declined my offer to go, so I declined his to stay. Mom says we play games with each other, but she herself declined as well. 
He, you know, the friend, the guy, drove me to the airport, after realizing, "Hey, she's really going through with this." He agreed to be responsible for my car even though I had already  agreed to take the money for parking (I needed it, God knows for what, but I still needed it). 
 On the airplane, I  noticed the seats were green and blue. I sat by the window, fell asleep, and was upset when I awoke. Why? because I didn't get my snack. I paid for it, didn't  I? Is it not part  of my fare? Within  the hour the plane landed at LAX. Did I have a choice? 

 I walked off the shuttle and to the Green Tram, which is the place where the Dollar rent a  car shuttle picked me up. I walked off the shuttle and into the Dollar rent a car place. The line was an hour long. Yeah, my turn finally, and the price of the car was $99.85. "For what? I made  reservations  and I was quoted $ 14.99 a day, I'm only going to have the car for 2 days."
I would expect to pay this price for a standard, luxury, or even a minivan, but an economy car which is  one of the smallest cars they carry, no way. Two weeks ago, we took the boys to DISNEYLAND, got a luxury car, CHRYSLER 300, leather seating, cd player etc., a car that was voted car of the year in 1998, for $24.99 per day,  $68 bucks total. 
Tax and insurance were included for that price. 
 I took the car anyway because I didn't have a choice. 

It's a holiday, before exiting, security  checked the paper work on the car. I was told of a  hotel with reasonable rates but  $75 a night and up was not reasonable to me, especially knowing when we went to DISNEYLAND we paid $85 plus tax for a suite with two rooms in one, three beds, and one or two sofa beds. There was cable in the rooms, free shuttles to and from the theme park, a pool, refrigerator and microwave, contintenal breakfast was afforded in the mornings, and we could walk to dozens of places, including malls. This hotel is called DESERT PALMS. 
Earlier I had made reservations at MOTEL 6 but didn't find the place, so I took my boyfriend's advice and went to the hotel that we had stayed in before where we  got a reasonable deal. 
 

THE SHOW 

Crawled out of  bed at 3: 10 a.m., after  receiving a wake up call from the front desk. Got to the PRICE IS RIGHT at 3:45 a.m. No one was there, it looked quite peaceful with a few cars driving by, and the sky was dark. Parked in line, turned off car, relaxed,  listened to music and decided to bundle up under my red Pooh sweater. Observed people getting in and out of their cars and taking turns standing in line. Waited 'til 5:00 a.m., that's when the guard opened the gate. Parked and walked to a line of  people.  Before another gate was opened (two hours later), I stood there, solo. Many other people were taking pictures of  the CBS symbol on the building, and others held each others place in line while the other went to get eats. At 7:00, we all walked anxiously to another place, through the gates,  but still  outside, where we were given numbers and instructions  on what to do and what to have (I.D. and social security card.)It's now 8:00, we were released til 9:30. To my surprise, people were still coming. A few people asked me about the process and others were frustrated because the invitation did say be there at 7:30.  Good thing I took a dry run last night (mom taught me to go and find out about places before you actually have to be there) and talked to the guard. He told me if I really wanted to be part of the show I needed to be there no later than 4 a.m. 
Between 10 and 11:30, they checked IDs and security cards, asked and wrote our names on a sticky name tag and re numbered us. Then we stood in front of a man and woman. The woman was quiet, with a pen and paper in her hand, and the man said "OK, tell me about yourself and why you want to be here." So in other words this was an interview. The final plan was going through security . We walked into the PRICE IS RIGHT studios at 12:45 p.m. It looks way bigger on t.v. Security seated us and taught us how to clap and scream, among other things. The game show began at 1:15 p.m. and was  over in an hour. 

The game show began at 1:15 p.m. and was  over  in an hour. Within  that  hour 
I wondered will they call me, but as time passsed by, I knew this wasn't happening.Was my mom and boyfriend right about going? or should  I have stayed home? 
out,and If I hadn't embarked on this adventure of TRAVEL OF NUTTIN'...I wouldn't have been 
happy. 
 
My special smile rating; 
 1)"PHAT!"  
 2)"OK" 
 3)"Weak"! 

This trip I rate                                      "OK" 

My travel tips;  
1) Watch out for misrepresentation... no place to go because of no credit card due to poverty.

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