Over time, I have come to understand that I don’t believe I fully comprehend this whole vacation thing.
Growing up in a household with four siblings, vacations for us meant loading the station wagon and heading North to see my grandparents. At the time, it seemed fairly exotic. In reality, hanging out in Lafayette, Ind., is about as far away from a tourist destination as one can get.
Those trips, nine hours each way, were spent bickering with my brothers and sister over who was touching whom. We tried everything from games to books to folding down the back seats and throwing in a mattress so we could sleep. What seat belts?
Maybe that is why I’m not a big fan of traveling. I like visiting places but not driving to them. I believe our lives would be much different if we’d had onboard TVs and DVD players back then.
The most exotic vacation we took was a trip to Fall Creek Falls. We borrowed a pop-up camper. What I remember most about it is the fan belt breaking on the way up the mountain.
Most of our trips were out of season, which meant things like pools, miniature golf courses and amusement parks were closed. Yeehaa.
I never saw anything south of Atlanta until my senior year of high school, when a bunch of us went to Daytona for spring break. I came home two days early.
With my wife and kids, I believe we’ve taken four, load-the-car and go-somewhere vacations in 26 years. We’ve spent lots of weekends traveling out of town for baseball and soccer tournaments, but I’m not sure those count. Tournament directors always market their events by touting the many things their city has to offer. The reality is you spend your time at the field, the hotel and the closest O’Charley’s, with an occasional trip to a mall or movie theater. We have those things here.
Most of my vacation days are spent at home. That is OK by me. There is plenty to do at my house. I took off last week and spent the entire time at home gardening, reading, sleeping, reorganizing and dealing with some of the many projects I’ve wanted to get to. Mostly, I napped or planned my next nap. It was pretty glorious, and I didn’t have to drive anywhere to do it.
I’ve often fantasized about renting a big RV and just taking off across the country, but I’m not sure I’d really like it. I’m the type that likes to hurry up and get there, and I don’t really think that is the point.