Spring Break 2013, Part I (Spontaneity)

On the last Friday before Spring Break, sweet wife suggested we try to work in a road trip while the kids were out of school. The following workweek was already looking ugly for me but the important meetings were all Wednesday afternoon or later. She had to work her usual Friday night shift, but had taken the rest of the weekend off because Saturday was her birthday. I was able to get Monday and Tuesday off so we had a little time to get a trip in.

But where? Austin? San Antonio?

"Let's go to the Grand Canyon!"

What? Oh, absolutely. It's only a bit over a thousand miles away and we'll have all of four days to get there and back. That's perfect! Oh, wait. I'll be working late Friday to try to get enough done to leave things in good shape for a couple of days so won't be able to even start getting anything ready until Saturday. She works the night shift and won't be in any shape to supervise the preparations. Of course we are going to want to work in at least a little birthday party. And since we'll be getting a late start, let's go ahead and go to 5:30 mass so we don't risk having to find a church on the way there. So now we're down to roughly 3 days of vacation with about 40 hours of driving. Awesome.

So Saturday evening we pointed the minivan westward and set off. We ran into snow falling near horizontally in strong winds somewhere in the Texas panhandle in the dark of night and almost turned back. We pressed on through that, through construction and through aggressive tumbleweeds. About seventeen hours later, we arrived in beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona - without hotel reservations. I don't completely remember all the reasons for not having ensured we'd have a place to sleep, but it did seem to fit with the overall theme of the trip. The spontaneity of that decision was a lot more charming at home in Texas than in the shopping center parking lot where we sat flipping through our iPhones trying to find a place that met our requirements.

We did eventually find nice and affordable accommodations. We enjoyed a good meal together and began making vague plans about the next day's drive to the canyon and return home. 

I'll try to write about that day soon, but I have to say that despite the short notice, the lack of planning and the amount of driving in such a short amount of time, it was a great experience. For me, I was with the people I love most so that's already a win. But I think it was a reminder of something important. Life in this modern world can get very busy and often there isn't time to do things you want to do. Do them anyway. Find a way to make the time. It doesn't have to be perfectly planned or pretty. It's okay if it's unreasonable and impractical. Just make time to make memories with the people you love.