On the road not taken
Probably because I’d get lost or run myself into a ditch a mile in: Ian Wood is undertaking a cross-country odyssey of sorts and all I can do is sigh enviously. I have recurrent urges to drop everything and just run until I get to, I don’t know, Idaho, but fortunately (?) am too lazy and broke for this to be a realistic impulse. Yet. I may one day start training my cat to wear a little backpack…
I don’t travel like other people, that is something I found out long ago that I can never make other people understand, which is why I don’t go on trips with friends anymore. Unlike most people I’m not a “destination” kind of person. And actually there-and-back-again vacation-type travel isn’t really my cup of tea. I consider it a torment: go to some place different from your dull, dreary life and have a wonderful time, then leave to go back to your dull, dreary life — what was the point, other than to make you realize how dull and dreary your life is and how tired you are of waking up to the same four walls, the same streets, etc.? Also, the logistics of getting to the vacation destination — the frantic need to hurry, the planning, the timetable, the rush-hour aspect of everything makes a vacation seem more like work than work. To me the actual journey itself is as important, if not more so, than the destination (the destination being often somewhat of a let-down — “well, we’re finally here”). I guess this comes from all the long car trips we used to take when I was a kid. We didn’t fly much, as it was expensive and my parents, I do think, were journey people themselves.
Another thing I’d rather do than travel and come back is move to some other place and stay awhile, and then move on. If I had enough money, or did the sort of work that didn’t tie you to one living place, that’s what I’d do. I keep telling myself that I am in reasonably good health and being over forty no longer means you’re over the hill and should start reserving a place in the nearest retirement community (and my grandparents certainly didn’t think so either, but unlike me they were frugal and planned for the future), but sometimes I feel like I let the train leave the station again without me on it.
December 23rd, 2005 at 12:22 pm
I totally understand. No one gets why I prefer to take a road trip as opposed to flying. Well, one, I hate to fly! But besides that. I much more enjoy taking a two week vacation driving along, seeing new places, then coming home.
December 23rd, 2005 at 12:46 pm
Yes, flying is really a pain. I used to enjoy flying, for the view from the plane (even the clouds below you can be spectacular). But the meat machine aspect of getting on a flight long ago (pre-9/11) wore the novelty off. Sitting next to morons I can deal with, more so with the invention of the iPod.
Driving is much more relaxing, IMHO. Even if you have to deal with road rage or idiot drivers……you can always pull over for a break. Or enjoy the scenery going down the road. Fortunately, much of my work is in an area where the cost of flying to is about the same as the cost of driving to.
Destination vacations……depends on the destination. But as a rule, I’m not much in favor of them either.
December 23rd, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Trains. All the scenery without the butt-numbery.
December 23rd, 2005 at 5:39 pm
I’m in favor of staying in one place, and haven’t been more than 25 miles from home in 6 years, and that was only briefly to pick up a new Doberman pup in 1999 from a hundred miles away.
I used to drive between Ohio and NJ regularly on work, and always took my Doberman in the passenger seat. Never go anywhere without your dog.
Mostly I don’t drive. A bike is fine, and the Ohio rural scenery is spectacular.
Ohio Clouds (David Adams)
Spring in Ohio is storms
And clouds, the great and sudden
Mountains, the first ranges,
The terrible descent
I can see people not leaving home, in the old days, for their entire lives.
December 23rd, 2005 at 9:28 pm
I work all over the world, so when on leave I like to stay home. That’s my vacation.
December 23rd, 2005 at 9:47 pm
I drive about 4500-5000 miles every July, just to scrape the debris out of the brain pan. (And another vote here for rural Ohio, which is awfully nice, and here and there riven with challenging roads.)
December 23rd, 2005 at 10:41 pm
In the good ole days, I had a nice conversion van. Instead of taking full advantage of it and making the journey a sightseeing one, the boyfriend was obsessed with always making the run to Florida to see his family in the quickest time possible. Every few hours he’d gaily call out the mile marker and exclaim over the good time we were making. Insanity! I learned to pee in a jar in a van moving at 80 mph.
Now that times are leaner and maintaining the house is getting more expensive, I’m contemplating getting a motorhome as my sole living quarters. So many folks say how cheap you can live. I hear camping resorts have work programs..working off their fee… and they then allow you to stay at them free the rest of the week. Might be kind of nice to look out your own bedroom window at scenery in Main and not long after, look out the same window and see Key West or something. All the while still being “home”.
Don’t know if I’ll make it happen yet, …all I know is, I’m tired and ready for a change as well.
p.s. here’s a forum full of people who’ve hit the road
http://rvtravel.com/rvforum/index.php