Getting Real with Shadra Bruce
Travel season is over and I’m in mourning. I look out my window and see snow falling. Yay, white Christmas, or whatever. But what it really means is slippery roads, closed highways, and no travel. I know, some people travel for Christmas – but their idea of adventure is quite different than mine, since they are willing to gamble spending the holiday in an airport or on the side of the road in a blizzard.
Our travel season is fairly long – we’ll start a weekend trips by mid-February and travel through Thanksgiving if the weather cooperates. It’s those few months of the year we can’t easily travel that get to me. It doesn’t help that we live in a small village with more funeral homes than stop lights. It was a big deal when they opened Taco Bell here, ok? I’m talking small enough town you can walk from one end to the other in about 3 hours.
So how do I survive the end of travel season? Mostly, I start planning trips for the next year – and we’ve started planning our next big road trip. It also gives me time to save more money for the next season, work on fine-tuning our business, and spend more time painting. Already on the books for next year are little escapes to Rochester, Buffalo, and Toronto, and we’re planning our annual anniversary trip to Montreal. This next year, we’ll also be adding college visits to the list of travel trips, and we’re thinking about Boston for next year’s new Thanksgiving tradition.
I guess for me, travel season never really ends – I’m either traveling, thinking about traveling, planning the next trip, or working hard to earn the money to pay for the travel. Our last child graduates from high school next year, and once the youngest two are off in college and doing their own thing most of the time, we can step things up a bit. Dave and I are well on our way to being one of those couples that work from the road full time – and I can’t wait!
