(no subject)
I'm working at a new client firm, so the guy in the next cube and I are still in the getting-to-know-you stage. He fascinated by the way I live my life, moving from country to country with only a very general idea where I want to be 5 years from now. But right now, he's raving about the vacation I'm taking next week.
It's February in Chicago and so bacchos and I are pretty sick of all the snow and cold. He's got spring break next week, so we're going on a road trip. The entirety of the plan is to cram the car full of clothes, food and camping gear, and to drive south until things either get warmer, prettier, or we hit an ocean. Which ever comes first. We camp if it's warm and dry enough; if it's not we find either a youth hostel or an independent motel. If there's stuff to do where we are, we stay. When we get bored or the weather turns, we drive to wherever the guide book (or even better, the local population) suggests. The point is to see interesting things, meet people, eat great food. (We always spend a lot more on food than we do on lodgings on these trips. I'd rather sleep in a tent but eat in the best place in town than the other way around.)
We've always traveled like this. Within a week of meeting bacchos I found myself sleeping on the floor of a church in Edinburgh, surrounded by the friends of some guy we picked up along the way. The first spring in the US we drove down the Mississippi along nothing but back roads. New Orleans happened to be at the end of it, but it was never the destination, just a highlight along the way.
I love traveling like this. There are no rules, no deadlines, no stress. If the next destination turns out to be a tourist trap or a ghost town, you keep going. You see things that aren't in any of the guidebooks and meet amazing people. I can't imagine traveling any other way.
It's February in Chicago and so bacchos and I are pretty sick of all the snow and cold. He's got spring break next week, so we're going on a road trip. The entirety of the plan is to cram the car full of clothes, food and camping gear, and to drive south until things either get warmer, prettier, or we hit an ocean. Which ever comes first. We camp if it's warm and dry enough; if it's not we find either a youth hostel or an independent motel. If there's stuff to do where we are, we stay. When we get bored or the weather turns, we drive to wherever the guide book (or even better, the local population) suggests. The point is to see interesting things, meet people, eat great food. (We always spend a lot more on food than we do on lodgings on these trips. I'd rather sleep in a tent but eat in the best place in town than the other way around.)
We've always traveled like this. Within a week of meeting bacchos I found myself sleeping on the floor of a church in Edinburgh, surrounded by the friends of some guy we picked up along the way. The first spring in the US we drove down the Mississippi along nothing but back roads. New Orleans happened to be at the end of it, but it was never the destination, just a highlight along the way.
I love traveling like this. There are no rules, no deadlines, no stress. If the next destination turns out to be a tourist trap or a ghost town, you keep going. You see things that aren't in any of the guidebooks and meet amazing people. I can't imagine traveling any other way.