It's that phone call you get on a dull Saturday afternoon from a good friend directing you to "grab a toothbrush and a clean shirt, we're headed to Tahoe to raise a little hell!"
It's deciding to call a few people and tell them to come on over right now because you're going to grill some meat and make some margaritas.
It's deciding to go east instead of north.
When our boys were still young Carolann and I took them on a cruise. That's a pretty exciting vacation for an eight and twelve year-old. But when we returned to port in Los Angeles after a week of great food and fun on the Mexican Riviera the letdown was palpable in all of us. We were happy, just not ready to end the
vacation. Not quite. So, rather than drive straight home to Sacramento as planned we decided to stay an extra night and take the boys to Disneyland as long as we were in Southern California anyway.Off we went!
That evening in our motel room, as we tucked our happy, tired boys into bed, that letdown feeling started to return. I picked up a map and looked at it for a couple of minutes.
"You know," I told my wife, "the Grand Canyon is only four hundred miles from here." And that's where we spent the next night.
Carolann and I have done this many times. We're great vacationers. We're just not good at ending them.
Once we were sitting in the Honolulu airport waiting to board our return flight. When the announcement came that the flight would be delayed we took it as an omen, blew off the reservation, phoned work and told them I'd need another couple of days and then we left the airport for another day and evening in paradise.
Another time it was a two-week driving vacation in our Lance truck camper that took us to Idaho, then north to the fabulous Canadian Rockies and from there to Vancouver. On schedule to return home in time for me to get back to work in two days, we suddenly headed west before turning south because driving the Washington, Oregon and California coastline is so much nicer than I-5. And it added a few impulse days to our vacation.
The luxury of spontaneity is in throwing out schedules. It is reminding yourself that you are free to do as you please whenever you wish.It has been too long. I'm ready to do something impulsive again. The problem is, you can't plan to be spontaneous. Or, can you?
Do you give in to your whims of adventure?
Tell me your tales. They inspire me.
Copyright © 2011, Dave Williams. All rights reserved.
Great posting. I have been impulsive with planning, meaning not just up and walk out the door but do unexpected trips needing some lead time. My best was when a friend called and said "I'd like to spend a month in Paris. Are you in?" And I was. I had just gotten a promotion at work and it really wasn't a good time to be away but how often do we get opportunities like that. I met with my new boss, told him the folks I wanted hired for my new team and left. It was a glotious month and I was ready to dive into the new role when I returned.
ReplyDeletewe get our oldest daughter to take the younger ones on a friday night, and we hop into the rv and just drive with no plans or purpose till we end up somewhere we like for the weekend.
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