There’s a lot of preparation involved in going on vacation. When you travel far from home, you are actually uprooting your life in one place and temporarily setting it up in another place. Your home patiently waits for you while the power sits unused, your water stagnates in the pipes, the devices begin gathering dust on your counters, and the landscaping prays for rain.
Meanwhile, you are transporting an array of stuff from one place to another so you will be able to live comfortably in a new location for a few days. Some of the stuff is essential, such as your toiletries, clothing, bedding and little Billy’s favorite stuffed animal. Others are short-term items such as bug repellant, suntan supplies, adaptive footwear and games for the kids unrelated to charging a device.
Hopefully your vacation requires car travel, because heaven knows the luggage fees in airports these days prohibit most of the stuff you would easily pack in the car. As it is, stuffing your vehicle for a vacation trip is what playing Tetris has trained you for. You can cram a week’s worth of stuff into the minimal hatch space in a small SUV and have room to add Billy’s second favorite stuffed animal.
Then there is the process of putting regular life on hold. In the olden days (about two decades ago), you would put vacation holds on newspaper deliveries and mail. Today the news is offered online, so your main concern is postal deliveries and online packages.
I had stopped ordering things for delivery in May for my June vacation, hoping I would get everything before I left. It didn’t work. One package took over four weeks to process and deliver (right after I had departed and held the mail), and the second was delayed and ultimately lost in customs partly due to the tariff-related holds, so I received an email before my vacation ended, asking if I wanted a replacement order. Yes, please. At least I will be home to receive it. In July sometime.
Bills, unfortunately, don’t wait for anybody, so while you’re away on vacation, payments become due while you’re buying souvenirs and eating dinner out. The bill next month is always a groaner. The food bill from eating out on a credit card goes up incrementally to how much vacation weight you gain.
Weather can also be unpredictable. You could experience a cataclysm at home while your vacation destination is sunny and mild. On the other hand, you could pick a vacation week in which storms occur every day for the whole week. That happened to us once. Yes, we left early and got a refund.
The decision to go away on vacation doesn’t mean that life is on hold. It’s still the same, just in unfamiliar surroundings. You may vacation in a dry town or one without a 24-hour pharmacy. The kids still want fast food, and vacationers who are used to their own cuisine at home may find a lack of places to shop for familiar edibles. However, you will be exposed to a new kind of local cuisine all around you.
You’ll encounter “resort pricing” and unfamiliar sales taxes. What passes as “soda” in your town may be “pop” in another. You may have difficulty finding cable channels, or the banks may have unfamiliar origins. To the locals, it’s a part of life, and you’re just passing through it.
Fortunately for me, I did not vacation far from home, so there was little cultural shock. I did my best to not be a disreputable tourist, shopped local, paid my share of tips and taxes, and left with all my physical and emotional baggage neatly packed in the back of my vehicle.
And no, I didn’t pack a favorite stuffed animal.
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