Driving Vacation

So tomorrow I leave on vacation.  Last year I got to experience my first paid vacation in almost 10 years.  Not only did I get a vacation, I got several.  A trip to the Windy City, two flights to Tex-Ass, and a staycation over Thanksgiving weekend.  I had another vacation earlier this year back to Chicago.

So getting time off isn't anything new.  It's something that went from Amazing, to wonderful, to great, to just another part of the job.

So at face value, this shouldn't be anything worthy of writing about.  I should mention it (I have a couple times) in a post but it's nothing that should occupy my mind in a way that makes me write it out.

But this vacation is different for several reasons.  First... it's by FAR the longest stretch I've taken off.  I try to plan my vacations around my weekends off.  I mean that just makes sense' start with the only two days off I have in a row and by taking two days off I've grown it organically into a four day vacation.  I believe my two trips to Tex-Ass and my Thanksgiving extended weekend were both a total of five days off.  The other trips were all three or four days off.

This time I'm taking six days off.  When my weekend and other regular days off are added in I'm getting a total of 10 days away from work!!!


I was this close (I'm holding my finger very close to my thumb right now) to taking another four days off just so I could say I'm taking a two week vacation.  Surprisingly I have that much time available.  In fact after I get back I'll still have another 34 hours of vacation time in the bank!

That's one way this vacation is different.  Just the size and scope of the thing is tough to get my mind around.  Another thing that makes it different is my mode of transportation.  I've taken the train twice for vacations.  I've stayed home for one vacation, and I've flown twice for vacation time.  This is the first time I've driven for a vacation.   And that really kind of hit me the other day... I'm driving again.

I say 'again' because my vacations of childhood always involved driving.  Of course I wasn't behind the wheel... that was Mom and Dad's job.  But we drove those old station wagons and minivans to almost every state in the nation (as well as Canada and Mexico).  We never drove to (or been to) Main, Alaska, or Hawaii (BTW, those three states are on my bucket list!).

Beyond those family vacations and taking out my recent trips, I've only taken a few trips with friends and only one of those could really be qualified as a 'Vacation'.  I've driven to Chicago several times (of course, outside of me living there), and I've driven to the nearby amusement park Cedar Point.  But those trips, while recreational in practice, weren't vacations.  Most of them were day trips.  I've taken one vacation with a friend about 10 years ago now.  We drove to Washington DC and stayed there for a few days.  That was splitting the drive time and was just over 500 miles each way.

This will be bigger, further, and alone.  I'm driving down to Tex-Ass.  It's a trip of just over 1000 miles each way.  It's long enough that I won't even be attempting to do it in a single day.  I'm going to start driving, have to stop for gas, stop for food, stop for mere resting reasons, and then stop for the night and start over the next day.  I'll actually be spending more time driving to and from Tex-Ass than I will be IN Tex-Ass.  But to me at least, that's a big part of the whole adventure.

Yes... the purpose of this trip is to see some friends.  I'll visit with them, hangout, have some fun with the gun... but just being confident enough to head out tomorrow morning alone and drive for 1000 miles is something that I'll talk about years from now.  That confidence comes from many areas of my life and is in no small part in thanks to my car.  Ginger makes all the difference in the world.  Fiona would have been 'fun' on this trip but she was just a tad too small for such a journey.  A big part of the internal confidence comes from my stint of driving a big rig.  For three months I drove nearly 500 miles a day.  I rarely stopped driving from being tired.  I had to stop because driving further was illegal.  So taking on 1000 miles over two days?  Easy.

I've also driven quite a lot for work as a photographer.  Most of our gigs were fairly close by, but some were as far flung as western New York state, Georgia, and Alabama.  We would shift drivers fairly often, but I was constantly in the rotation.  Not only because I was good at it, but because I enjoyed it.

So yes.. I CAN drive this.  Flying would be far faster, but as far as I'm conserned, it's a full day of travel.  Get up early, get everything packed, get a ride to the airport or find a parking spot in the garage, get through security, wait for the plane to get there and empty, get onto the plane, wait for everybody else to get one, taxi out to the runway, take off, fly, land, taxi to the airport, disembark, get any luggage, find the exit and find the person picking me up (or in the final rung, find my car).  Sure, the flight itself is only say 4 hours, but there's a good solid 4 hours around the flight time that can't be avoided.

So to compare, driving will take twice as long but cost a mere fraction.  Consider that if I fly, I want to do so comfortably.  I will insisst on first class if for no other reason that having one of those comfortable seats.  A last minute to Tex-Ass is $640 right now.  I'll probably spend about $100 in gas and let's guess $100 for a hotel.  If I had planned this trip well in advance I could probably have gotten that plane ticket for closer to $400.  That would still be twice the price of driving.

And what other advantages are there to driving?  Well... I leave when I want.  I might leave at 6 AM.  I might leave at 9 AM.  I might leave at noon.  Any of those departure times would work equally well.  When do I eat?  Whenever the fuckity fuck I want to.  What do I eat?  Whatever catches my fancy on that particular exit.  I am in control of this journey.  Hell, if I spot something along the highway that seems interesting (say for instance the biggest plastic eggplant in the world), I can stop off and take a visit.

And then there's the reason that first got my thoughts turned toward driving.   Luggage.  I am not restrained in any way as to what I take or bring back with me.  The gun was my first consideration.  My previous plane trips involved me taking only a carry on bag.  That was... well that was a pain.  Cramming every big of clothing and personal items into a single bag that could fit into the overhead bin.  To take a gun on a flight it MUST be in checked baggage.  That adds cost and hassle.  Taking it in car means... well it means tossing it (inside of it's locked box) into the trunk.

And that crammed bag?  Well I can take a far larger suitcase now.  Or two smallish ones.  Or a large one and a small one.  I'm visiting a friend that spent all of his drinking days in Michigan so I can also bring a 12 pack of a beer that he loved and can't get in Tex-Ass.  While in Tex-Ass if I find something I like (say a new gun or a shit-ton of ammo), I can buy it and bring it back with me.  Even little things... I normally woudl take my small travel charger for the phone, but now I can take my bulky wireless charger as well as my quick charger.  I can bring my razer and shaving supplies (I normally leave them behind as they're bulky and I'm not gone long enough to require a shave).

One issue that's been on my mind is how I'll spend my time.  Sure, I'll of course be driving, but driving for eight hours leads to boredom.  And boredom while driving leads to accidents.  I've talked about what I listen to while commuting to and from work.  On the way to work I listen to NPR and then finish the ride with some music (from the iPod).  On the way home I listen to various podcasts.

I'll have a combination of those three things and one additional one for this trip.  First, I'll of course have my iPod as it's constantly in the car.  I'll have my podcasts in my phone, I'll just have to ensure that I downlaod a lot of them before starting the drive.   Sadly, I'll be leaving my local NPR station behind.  I could try to get it on their app, but that would require a decent phone signal while driving and I just don't want to deal with that hassle.  So instead I'll have my Sirius radio that has NPR Now as a station.  And of course I'll have all the rest of the Sirius stations to keep me company.  I consider Sirius just another radio, so that's not the new thing... the new thing will be an audio book.  I'll be buying one today and have it qued up in the phone or the iPod.  Between all of those, I think I'll do just fine for audio amusement on this trip.

The in car navigation system will keep me headed in the right direction and even when the next 'turn' is 200 miles down the road I can just set it and forget it.  It will beep and remind me to turn when it's necessary.

I have roadside service from my new car warranty, so if anything goes wrong on the road I can handle it.  I'm taking the car to get detailed today... and God that's expensive!  It will involve them cleaning the entire interior (including conditioning the leather), a full wash outside, the use of a clay bar and three coats of wax.  All of that will cost me just over $200.  But a beautiful car is worth it when four days will be spent in it.

So... I think driving is far more my ideal.  Sure, I can't do this nearly as often as those shorter trips, but I think it's value far outweighs it's cost.

I'm SO excited about this!!!!