On Sat, 25 Sep 2010 06:45:54 -0500, Andy > wrote:
>
>There's a passport "card" obtainable in the USA that's usable for Mexico
>and Canada.
>
>A worldwide passport has skyrocketed from $35 (?) to $125+.

So what, in the past ten years the price of a loaf of bread has
skyrocketed too, from $1.19 to $3.99... are you going to stop eating
$8/lb ham sandwiches because two slices of bread now costs 40¢

Relative to the cost of travel the price of a passport is chump
change... for someone who travels even once a year the cost of a
passport is $12.50/yr... for someone going out of country even four
times a year the passport costs less than a cup of coffee per trip.
For anyone who travels the cost of a passport is not a speck in the
equation.

I had a current passport all my adult life but when it was time to
renew two years ago I had realized that in ten years I hadn't used my
passport even once and was 100% certain I would never have use for it
again, so now I don't have one and I don't feel the least bit naked.
There is nowhere on the planet that I would like to visit that I
already haven't and many more than once. I have no family or friends
out of country that I would visit... I have a few distant relatives in
Argentina that I have never seen or even communicated. The last time
I was out of the US was 15 years ago when I used to visit Belize
often. I've done most of my travel in the US by automobile, don't see
anything flying (driven in every state but Hawaii, I traveled from LA
to Alaska by motorcycle,1965), plenty to see here, can't see it all in
10 life times... there are places in the US I still may one day hop in
my car and visit... I've driven all through Mexico and extensively
through Canada (I've seen more of Canada than most Canadians), have no
desire to go there again... the things that would interest me in
Canada have vastly deteriorated in the past 50 years same as in the
US... most of the National Parks I visited over my lifetime have been
destroyed to the point that they are now slums (especially CA, CA is
bankrupt in more ways than economically), they ALL need to be
permanently closed to the public, visit by CD.