The Problem With Vacations.....

Is obviously, they must end.  But there is way more to the story.  

 I just returned from a time limited trip to Utah, that I had long planned as the beginning of living full-time on the road.  Life has a way of handing me surprises so after four months on the road I found myself back in a life with a grandchild in tow with the limits of teenage schools and schedules. So I promised myself that I would travel as often and fully as was possible.

I certainly wanted to recapture the feeling of living on the road but boy there are some big differences between living on the road and vacationing.  

   

Searching for Lost Treasures

It is amazing how much time is spent when using your little home for sometime travels, packing, repacking and reorganizing.  Without being in the Lolita on a daily basis I quickly forget exactly where I stashed lots of important stuff.  That leads to a constant battle of moving things to find things. It is like a scavenger hunt, finding all the lost treasures again to be repeated the next time I reenter my little home on wheels.

Tick, Tock, Tick Tock.....  

 

One aspect of living on the road that appeals to me the most is the calm at which I approached the daily living.  Without a schedule to be keep, the days become peaceful with choices that are made each day about what to do without the blaring tick tock of a ever present schedule that MUST be kept.  After all there is always tomorrow or the next day or whenever or maybe never.  The lack of frenzied activity is for me one of the great benefits of living on the road.  It didn't take long on vacation before the tick tock, tick tock, grew loud, and then louder still, reminding me that my time was short on the road for this adventure was growing short.

 

Run, Run, Run.....

 When it seems you have all the time in the world for a bigger than life adventure you can take your time and live your adventure fully.  Once the clock starts ticking the pressure is on to go, go, go. There was so much to do, so much to see, that I found my self on the run trying to fit it all in, see it all remember it all and record it all.  Photography and blogging certainly provide and excellent opportunity to record the moments to be relieved again and again.  

 

Cost, Cost Cost.....

 

The way I traveled on this trip is definitely more costly than the way I prefer to travel day to day travel on the road.  I traveled three thousand miles in less than three weeks. in a full circle route.  When traveling on the road, the round trip is not necessary thereby saving a great deal of gas and money.  Last summer I traveled approximately 3500 miles in nearly five months.  It was definitely more to my liking.  Additionally when traveling it is easy to get lazy about cooking, grabbing something to quickly eat which generally is more expensive.

 

Choices, Choices, Choices

 

When living on the road, I generally stayed in a location because there was something left I wanted to do.  I didn't make reservations and when the time seemed right I moved on.  It is the way I prefer to roam.  In vacation mode, daily choices had to be made about what one thing was the most important thing for that day.  That also meant there were things that I wanted to do that I would have to bypass because the time was limited.  It is difficult for me to leave those for another time as I don't know when I will be that way again. Vacationing requires a balancing act of going, seeing, doing, experiencing and living all compressed in a short period of time.

 

Vacations End

 

The sad fact is vacations end.  The dreaded Monday requiring the return to reality arrives and the travel adventure is over.  Then comes the unpacking... and transitioning back into living a different routine and reality. 

I love living on the road, without timetables and experiencing moving at will or staying as long as I wanted in each place.  I loved living a place, not just seeing a place.  Knowing this I knew that a trip can not recapture completely the feeling of full timing.  In another month school will be out and we will again be traveling and seeking new adventures hopefully with less time pressure.   

We all live different lives with different priorities and obligations.  When simple living and travel are a priority it requires finding a balance of  meeting the priorities and obligations and desires in different ways.

I am still searching for that balance.