I’m on vacation starting tonight after work. The camper is being loaded as I write this. Arrangements have been made for the animals that we’re not taking with us and as soon as the last email is sent it’s off we’ll go for a week long whirlwind tour of the southern United States. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. We’ll pass through them all going and coming.
I used to get excited a week before a vacation trip back to Louisiana and that excitement would grow until I was finally on the road. Now it tends to be trepidation more than excitement. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love seeing aunts and uncles and family again and I truly love traveling with my Wife. She’s grownup enough to help with the driving when needed and likes to get lost sometimes just for fun like I do. We have a generally great time when we travel. This time though the excitement of the trip isn’t there. The “finally getting away from it all” sense that you get on a vacation.
Yes, we’re “finally getting away from it all” but this time the truth is that I don’t really want to get away from it all. I like “it all” just fine.
The leaves are just coming in on the trees and we’ll miss the long awaited sight of our neighbors fading away into the bright green spring foliage. The little garden that I keep behind the house is all tilled up and ready to plant but the planting will have to wait an extra week until I get back. We’ll have rains for most of the next 5 days which would have been great to get the garden started.
In all honesty, I LIKE being a recluse. I LIKE being secluded and locked away in our little slice of paradise with my one true friend (with no offense intended to my other true friends, of course). I don’t look forward to 3 days of driving interstates in the rain. I don’t look forward to taking up residence in someone else’s yard with my big ole camper. I don’t look forward to dealing with muddy dogs and the transient lifestyle. Even if it’s only for a week. Even if we truly love the folks we’ll be spending time with and even though we miss them dearly in the time between seeing them.
I really want to spend time with family. I just wish they’d do it at my house.
So, with several glances over my shoulder we’ll trundle off down the drive tonight and turn right at the Interstate. We’ll truly enjoy ourselves while gone, we always do. We’ll get to spend time with family. A little talking, a little partying, a little celebration. We will, as they say back home, “pass a good time” until we are back in our little hole in the North Carolina woods.
So, if I’m visiting you over the next week don’t be offended if you catch me looking just a bit too longingly back towards the East.