vacation planning
When we go off on our occasional vacations, we pack up most everything we own and then, either in Stanwoodopolis or out by the freeway, we go right or left, north or south, then head where our noses point us. I guess some folks would say we’re Planning Averse. And really, I admit it, we are. This trip, however, we threw a dart beforehand and hit British Columbia’s east side. So we looked at the map and picked a place called Winlaw high above the Washington/Idaho border. Folks asked what was there we were interested in and we said we’ll have to tell you when we get back.
I got friends where half the fun is planning the trip, getting reservations, collecting guidebooks, studying the geography and geology of the place they’re going, building up the excitement to fever pitch months before they go. If they have time, they learn a bit of the native language; you know, Eastern Montanan or Boston brogue, Canadian backwoods, eh? Obviously, that is not our style. And okay, for the record, we’ve gone down some bad roads, although I won’t go so far as to say they made for a bad vacation. A vacation to us is a get-away. To anywhere, any way, any time. It isn’t home. It isn’t routine. It isn’t scheduled. It’s a surprise every day. It’s somewhere ELSE, not just physically, but mentally. Why on earth would we want to plan it, review it, fact check it, practice it, create expectations and then go repeat it all. Probably be disappointed if it wasn’t all that we thought it would be. Or bored if it was. Let’s just go home. Practically seen it and done it thirteen times already.
Our traveling, I think, is the detour to all that. Turn off the highway and try the dirt road. Sure the tires might go flat, but we got a spare. Usually. If nothing else, we get more interesting stories to tell. And the places we go aren’t half as crowded as Disneyland or some disease plagued cruise boat. At least not yet ….