Why I’m Planning Four Trips When We’re Only Taking One (Or Maybe None) Of Them

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Getting back into planning trips longer than a day has taken a while for us. Eventually, we managed to find a socially distanced trip that met our needs and it’s hopefully going to happen next month. While our dog isn’t thrilled about the idea of going back to “camp,” she’s happy to see all of her friends who spoil her rotten when we’re gone.

The question is still looming about what we’re going to do at the end of the year when we originally planned on going to Japan for two weeks. I have the time blocked off from work and my employer isn’t letting me cancel scheduled vacations like they were at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I’ve accepted that Japan just isn’t going to happen. There’s no indication that Japan will even be open to U.S. citizens by then, but even if it is, we wouldn’t want to travel on a plane for that long.

Right now, road trips are more our speed. We have the most control over our environment and we’d always have the choice to just turn around and come home if things get too uncomfortable.

When we try to sit down and try to plan any of these trips, we always end up saying, “How can we plan anything when we don’t know what things will be like in 3 months from now?” That’s true, but I still want to look at what’s possible and exciting for us. I can have preliminary plans and I could put any one of these trips on the books with less than two weeks of lead time.

New Orleans and Texas (33 hours)

This trip would replace two of the places we needed to cancel trips to in 2020. We’d get to visit New Orleans and the Hill Country of Texas. Even we couldn’t visit Schlitterbahn, we could still visit our favorite restaurants [Note from Sharon: And Buc-ee’s! But I’m not obsessed] and see the things we always say we’re going to but never get a chance to because we’re too busy.

COVID-19 could throw a huge wrench into these plans, with all of the states being potential hot-spots.

Friends In The South (23 hours)

This trip would take us throughout the southeast to visit friends in North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia and sneak in trips to the Biltmore Estate and Dollywood. With the trip more based on people than sightseeing, there’s less chance for us to feel uncomfortable with our surroundings.

East Coast History and Friends (30 hours)

This trip combines visits to friends and family in Charlotte, Atlanta, and north Florida with seeing Mount Vernon and Monticello in Virginia (two historical sites I’ve never visited) and a stop by South of the Border, of course.

Escape The South (41 hours)

By November, we might just want to get the heck out of the Southern United States. One place we’ve always wanted to visit is Vermont. I have a Subaru, so we might as well take it to visit the landscape it’s built for, SNOW!!!

This is the most out-there of the trips we’re thinking of because we don’t ski and besides Ben & Jerry’s factory and the Trapp Family Lodge, I have no idea what else we’d do in Vermont. This trip could be just as much about the journey as the destination as we’d be able to visit some locations from our other trips on the way. I’d say we could visit Montreal since we’re so close, but I doubt that Canada would be letting Americans across the border.

Final Thoughts

It’s been fun to map out possible trips. Sharon and I haven’t been on a long car trip since we drove a U-Haul from New Jersey to Orlando in 2001 to bring the belongings from my childhood home to our new house in Florida. Sure, we’ve taken trips to the Florida Keys (7 hours each way), but that’s not a 20 – 40-hour road trip like I made when I was a kid (and I wasn’t driving part of the way).

Part of me is really excited that any of these trips might happen, but another side of my brain thinks we’re just crazy about planning any type of trip, not to mention a two-week road trip right now.

I don’t know which side of my brain is right but I’m enjoying the discussion 🙂

#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands #wearamask

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary