After a lifetime of working my wife and I are ready to take a little time to smell the roses and sample the country. A friend will be housesitting for us here while we're gone.Not a fleeting sample either. When you are working, vacations are welcome breaks from the stress and pressures of work.
As a newspaper reporter I often found it difficult or unnerving to take two weeks away from the office. News on your beat doesn't stop just because you are away so the time leading up to the break is doubly stressful as you try to anticipate events and make arrangments to have them covered
It was often easier and less stressful to take vacations in one week segments. That left touring rushed and sometimes lacking for the right amount of time. Just ask my wife and stepdaughter about the day we left Yellowstone Park, toured Mt. Rushmore and then traveled another five hours across South Dakota so we could get to the Mall of America in Minnesota the next day.
When I did take two weeks vacation, by the time I returned my desk was piled high with stories not done and things to do.
The wonderful glow of a long vacation fades quickly when the work is stacked up to your ears.
My wife Joan, was a high school teacher. While she had long breaks in the summer, so did everyone else. Tourist destinations were crowded and peak travel times meant prices were higher. Besides, her husband usually had to be back to work in a week.
But with my retirement in December 2007 and Joan's in June of 2009, things will change.
One thing that has already changed is the space on my driveway. On Friday, March 27, 2009, our 2008 Laredo 311RL travel trailer arrived home. The maiden voyage is scheduled to begin Saturday, April 4, 2009.
Our shakedown cruise has been planned for awhile, even before we bought the trailer. The first destination is Berea, Kentucky for four days and then Frankfort, Kentucky for three days.
We chose a one-day drive and two destinations to give us practice setting up and taking down our campsite.
We're not really roughing it, though. The trailer has a nice kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and even a television with cable hook-ups. The electric fireplace is a bit much, but it came with the trailer. Even with that we both plan on spending time in quiet reading. Time to read for fun was always a luxury, one we plan to take full advantage of now.
I'll still be blogging over on Free From Editors about newspapers, but you won't find that conversation here.
So if you feel the urge to travel with us, even vicariously through this blog, welcome aboard Grandma's Recess.
