My family recently returned from a cross-country vacation. We drove from Michigan to Dallas, Texas (nineteen and a half hours without spending the night along the way). From there we headed east to spend a few days in north Louisiana, and finally headed further east to Alabama before veering north again and returning home.
It was an adventure, to say the least.
There were many lessons learned along the way. The first was that my DH, who normally does the bulk of the driving on these trips, is not able to carry his typical weight when he is hit with severe seasonal allergies.
Also, he’s really grumpy and not overly exuberant about participating in vacation-like activities. Considering he isn’t an overly exuberant person to begin with, well, you can imagine my own frustration…
Another lesson I learned was that my eldest child only has the capacity to be what I like to call normal for brief periods of time. During those periods, he is such a spectacularly wonderful child that all adults in the vicinity are lulled into the misguided belief that he is such an easy kid to travel with, hang with, enjoy spending time with. Until he loses his mind just as spectacularly, leaving us all stunned and reeling and unsure of what just happened and how to recover.
The third lesson I learned, which goes hand in hand with the last one, is that my youngest is a wonderful traveler. easy-going, flexible, amenable, laid back, just happy to… be. I am strongly considering taking just the one the next time we travel. It would probably make us all happier….
The final lesson learned is that no matter my intentions, expecting to get more writing done than during a normal work week was an utterly unobtainable goal. I was far too busy corralling children, babying the DH, spending QT with my friends and family, and generally enjoying my vacation. Considering I have three different writing deadlines at the moment, not to mention the commitment of providing you with a new blog each and every Monday, I guess we all know what that means.
Just like in nearly every other profession, when one takes a break from writing, it means twice as much work upon my return. The lesson there, theoretically, could be that I should not take a vacation.
Which is one lesson I wholly plan to never, ever learn.
Leave a Reply