She Sells Seashells Down By the Seashore . . .

I recently read a post by blogger Jon Acuff about Road Trip Rules he has for his family. It made me chuckle as I thought of my own childhood vacations and the consequences they had on my vacation planning as an adult.

We had awesome vacations and a lot of summers I'd go down to my grandparents house in Puerto Rico. . .but my parents kind of liked to go with the flow and I kind of liked to know where we'd be sleeping before we rolled into town at 2 am.  Time did not exist while on vacation. Wait. Let me rephrase that. My dad literally made time. Ohio to Florida? No problem-we'll be there for breakfast! If we hustle we can have a bathroom break in Virginia and brush our teeth at Y's house in South Carolina!

What would ensue would be lots of praying sleeping for me as we barreled down the highway in the dead of night with my dad doing all kinds of calisthenics, windows open, trying to stay awake. There were no dvd players in our day so for entertainment we did tours of the nation's most backwater service stations. Why did we end up there? Because the famous phrase was "we'll stop at the next one in about 20 minutes". It was always 20 minutes .  . . then 30 . . . then desperation would set in, my mother would insist that we get out at the very next exit and 30 minutes after that we'd be playing chinese checkers in a diner at 2 am in a town with a population of 13.

As we grew older we could be more adventurous. Jericho in a tiny Fiat? No problem! (This was after my dad had asked a soldier if we were on the right road and he'd replied : not in that car. . .) Two week camping trip to Spain in a similarly sized vehicle and no plan -- no hay problema! 16 hour long return trips to New York for the weekend? Fuggedaboutit!

Suffice it to say that as an adult I ran to the other extreme, which I've been told can be just as exasperating. I've toned it down a bit but generally if you're traveling with me there will be a proposed itinerary with restaurant addresses, show schedules and rest assured the lodgings will be the best tempered frugality can offer. I can afford to be more spontaneous these days but only because the internet and my iphone allow a lot of the planning to be done in transit. Are you wondering where we're going this summer? To a small island where there is no planning to be done, where you can bike and run to your heart's content, but mostly where I can be by the sea . . .