Get Ready

For me, the fun of travel is in the planning. And boy, do I plan.  Just ask my husband, Ron.  He has witnessed my tunnel vision as I research a destination from every conceivable angle.

He has put up with the piles of travel books I take to bed with me to read.  The hours of Google searches.  Visiting travel blogs. Lurking message boards.  Not to mention the research that goes into finding the absolute best travel deals out there.  (I am a librarian, after all!)

This may sound as if we are a jet-setting kind of family.  Believe me, we're not.  In fact, we've only been on two big trips in the past eight years or so.  One to Disney and one to the Caribbean on a Disney Cruise.  But I milk these opportunities for all they're worth.  Have you seen what one of those Disney Cruises costs?  Yeesh! I was determined to get every last drop of enjoyment out of the whole experience even before we set sail.

This cross-country trip has been more than six months in the making.  On January 1, I called Yellowstone to make the arrangements to stay in the park.  Since then, there were so many details to be figured out.  What route should we take?   How long would we drive each day?  What stops should we make along the way?  Should we make hotel reservations in advance for our nights en route.  (We did.)

So I've had a half-year of anticipation building for this trip, my serotonin levels getting a boost every time I look at a Google map or make a hotel reservation.  (There is a study about how vacationers feel happier planning a trip than the actual traveling.  You can read a New York Times article about it here.)

 Ron has put me on notice - this will be it for a while.   We've got a home to take care of.  Repairs that have been put off to fund this trip.   Clapboards to replace and paint, a driveway to resurface, and numerous water leaks to fix.

And while we're doing all that, I'll be secretly planning for the next adventure.