The Perpetual Tourist

It’s more than a little ironic that right after I write about healthy vacationing, I leave for my trip with something I definitely didn’t plan to bring with me — the flu. Being sick on an airplane is no picnic, but being sick in a car on a 10-hour drive in the middle of nowhere is worse. No rest stops, no comfort, no end in sight. Getting here was not easy, but we made it to Reno yesterday morning, and I’m feeling a lot better now, so I’ll spare the details of my illness and focus on the highlights of the journey.

Oregon is one of just a handful of states in the US that I’d never visited. McKenzie grew up there, and has seen every piece of the state working as a FedEx driver over the past decade. The two of us met on the bridge circuit, fell hard in love, and he left Oregon behind to join me in Virginia. He says he loves it in my home state, and I believe him, but his homesickness is obvious most of the time. I’ve been looking forward to my first trip to Oregon for a long time. He has a lot of great things to say about it, and not a day goes by that he doesn’t tell me about the places he wants to show me. With all this talk over the past several months, you’d think I would have been prepared for what I would see.

We landed in the Portland airport just before midnight on Christmas day. It was cold and wet outside, and I couldn’t really see much in the dark anyway. We drove to his parents’ place in Salem that night, and left the next morning for our 10-hour drive to Reno. My first real glimpse of Oregon came on Wednesday morning just after a light snow had painted the hills white. I didn’t honestly expect the beauty to live up to all of McKenzie’s wistful testimony, but so far Oregon was exceeding my expectations.

We were only on the interstate a short while before exiting for Route 58 through the Cascade Mountains. The road was icy and I was sick, but all of my worries evaporated as I looked out the window of our van at the scenery we were driving through. There are lots of sights in Virginia that are breathtakingly beautiful, and our state’s rich history and visual appeal are well documented. However, most of the best views are off the beaten path, and you sort of just have to know about them. Driving along the highway back home is pleasant enough, but I had no idea you could see such amazing landscapes along any roadside until we hit Oakridge, Oregon, a little over an hour into our drive.

The Middle Willamette River runs alongside Rt. 58 as you drive into the mountains, and the Douglas Firs were covered in snow like I’ve only ever seen in paintings before. Every couple of seconds, I excitedly pointed out things to McKenzie that he has seen a thousand times before. “Z! Do you see that?! Look over there! And there — oh my god, this is beautiful. Oh, wow.” These were the only words I was able to get out in the times that my jaw wasn’t hanging down in my lap. I’ve been moved to tears by beauty in literature, film, and music in the past, but this was my first experience where nature did it to me.

For the first time, I really grasped why McKenzie was so homesick, and how much I must mean to him, that he was willing to leave this behind for me. It was overwhelming, but in the best possible way. When a downed tree blocked our path and we had to stop for a bit, I wasn’t even frustrated. I was happy for the opportunity to get out of the car and take it all in, and figure out how to work my new digital camera.

Even though the flu made me more uncomfortable than I can remember ever being in my life for 90% of this long drive, the scenery along this stretch of road is enough to easily put this trip among my all time favorites. Now that I’m feeling better, hopefully I’ll have some fun here in Reno before turning around for the drive back next Tuesday. I’m studying up on gambling strategy today… Check back soon to see how that works out for me on the casino floors.

I would not call myself a health nut, but I am fitness conscious. The gym is part of my daily routine and my fridge is stocked with items that taste great and also won’t make me feel guilty about eating. But if I let myself skip too many days of exercise, or indulge my sweet tooth too much, it can be a real battle to get back into my healthy habits — which is why vacationing can be dangerous.

Certainly it’s great for my mental health to take a trip, but all that eating out and all that lounging around can really wreak havoc on my fitness agenda. After all, it’s sort of a vacation tradition to stop at Cracker Barrel and Hardee’s and munch on m&m’s and salted peanuts in the car. Then of course sampling the local flavor is never as enjoyable when you only allow yourself to get the salad. Forcing myself to diet while on vacation is never successful or fun, so instead I just make sure to work healthy choices into my travel agenda.

If you’re staying in a hotel, you probably don’t have the option to cook for yourself, and even when you do, it’s more likely that you’ll be eating your meals in restaurants anyway. It’s fine to eat what you want — you are on vacation, after all — but don’t lie to yourself about what you’re doing. In the past, I’d rationalize my gluttony by promising myself to work out twice as hard and really watch what I eat when I get home. I think a lot of people do this — but when you spend a week or more overindulging, it’s damn near impossible to turn the willpower back on immediately. When you get home, you’re going to have to play catch up at the office and probably catch up on some sleep, too. Does that really leave time for extra exercise?

My parents go on a lot of cruises. They eat like kings and laze around all week, then come home ten pounds heavier. Dad throws himself into exercise and cuts himself off from any but the healthiest foods, and sheds the weight by the end of the week. Dad is not a real person. Real people are like my mother, who comes home more exhausted than when she left, and spends the next week complaining that she can’t be more like my father who can lose his vacation weight almost instantaneously.

So back to those healthy choices. Most people gain weight on vacation, but as long as you aren’t a complete pig, your vacation doesn’t have to be a huge fitness setback. A nice thing about vacation is that you do have plenty of opportunity to have fun and be active at the same time. In your day-to-day routine, your fitness time probably isn’t the most enjoyable part of your day, but when you’ve got 24 hours a day to plan any way you like, you can work exercise into your day without having to go to a gym. Do some sightseeing on foot to casually and enjoyably burn off the calories from your hotel’s breakfast bar. If you’re at the beach, go swimming in the ocean, or take surfing lessons. If you’re in the mountains, go for a hike with your camera around your neck. Do whatever you want — it’s easy to work active activities into your itinerary, and you won’t have to guilt yourself about what you’re eating or lie to yourself about what you’ll do when you get home. Plus, keeping active while on vacation will make it easier to get back to whatever fitness routine you practice at home.

The key to a great vacation is finding a balance between indulging yourself and making enough healthy choices that you don’t regret it all later. Eat what you want, have fun, and stay active. You may come home a little bit softer around the middle, but it will be easier to get back on track physically as long as you don’t completely let yourself go in your time away.

I’ve never understood people who take days to pack for a trip. I hate it when I call a friend to propose an evening out and they say “I can’t, I have to pack for my trip this weekend.” And it’s only Tuesday. Wtf? (After Thanksgiving, I told my mom what I really wanted for Christmas was for her to help me make a new dress, something that I’ve seen her do from start to finish in under an hour in the past. She said no, she’d be too busy getting things in order for her 5-day trip to Florida after New Year’s. I’m beginning to think that “packing” has become the go-to excuse for blowing me off.)

Packing has never taken more than two hours for me, and that was only because I absolutely had to do laundry in order to have something clean to wear on my trip. I don’t keep a particularly organized house, though I’m not a complete slob (anymore), and yet I can still find everything I need for even a long trip and pack it in a suitcase or two within about five minutes. My suitcase for a trip of a week or more usually includes the following:

• One outfit per day for up to a week (jeans are recyclable, and it is assumed that laundry facilities will be available after a week) plus a few extra shirts in case my mood changes, and at least one dressy outfit.
• Shoes for working out and shoes to match whatever dressy thing I packed (I will wear my comfy shoes on my travel day, so I’m taking 3 pairs in all)
• A swimsuit and some sweats for the hotel pool, jacuzzi, and gym
• Hairbrush, toothbrush, deodorant, razor
• All of my underwear (you don’t want to take any chances)
• Enough feminine supplies to plug up the Mississippi (like underwear, it’s good to overpack these things)
• My multivitamin
• My laptop and its various cables
• A camera and extra batteries
• Chargers for everything that will need charging (phone, iPod, laptop)
• A towel (I wouldn’t really call this a necessity, but I do what Douglas Adams tells me to)
• The Happy Fun Bag (more on this shortly)

How hard is that? What part of this takes so long to put together? What am I leaving out that is eating up all this trip preparation time for everyone else, and what am I missing out on as a result of my negligence? As far as I can tell, nothing.

The one part of my packing that does require actual thought and maybe a little bit of time is the Happy Fun Bag. I think everyone has one of these for trips; I got the name from my friends who travel a lot with a young daughter. You definitely need a Happy Fun Bag when you’re traveling with kids, but I recommend them for adults, too. It’s full of all that stuff that will keep you from getting bored out of your wits on a long car ride, a layover, or during your down time in a hotel room somewhere.

When packing my Happy Fun Bag, I like to give myself plenty of options. Sure, that mystery novel may be appealing right now, but who knows what I’ll be in the mood for on the plane? Or what if it sucks? I always pack three books: two I haven’t read before and one I have read and loved in the past, just in case the other two are duds. I also put my iPod in there, a deck of cards, a pad of paper and a pen, something to snack on, my crocheting (check with airlines to see if they allow knitting and crochet needles in your carry on bags — some do and some don’t), and a few puzzle books. Lately I’ve been on a real Kakuro kick, but I also pack variety puzzles just in case I get bored of that, too. I tend to bore easily while in transit, so it’s good to have a lot of options in the Happy Fun Bag.

In truth, I won’t really touch most of what’s in there during my trip. It’s all about the options. I can’t just pack one book and expect to be satisfied with it, because if I do that, you can bet I’ll wish I had my crafts instead. So I just pack all of my easily portable diversions for every trip, and I’m rarely bored while traveling. It would be easier if I could just sleep in a car or a plane, but I pretty much have to be lying down in a bed at night to get any sleep. However, we don’t call it a Happy Fun Bag for nothing — it’s a great thing to have on a trip.

So that’s how I pack for a trip in under 20 minutes. 5 minutes for the suitcase and 15 for the Happy Fun Bag. Seriously, did I leave anything out?

The countdown is on. In just under two weeks, I’ll be getting on a plane and leaving life as I’ve always known it. It’s not that I’m dropping everything and starting all over again — I’m not that dramatic — but my life is going to be very different, and I expect that I am going to be quite happy with the changes.

Up until now, I’ve lived by a schedule. Wake up, go to work, come home and struggle to stay awake for the few enjoyable hours of the day, fall asleep, repeat. If I wanted a vacation, it was always up to someone else. Actually, there were quite a few factors. Did I have enough money? Did my schedule line up with the schedules of my fellow travelers? Would my job allow me the time off? How much stress would this cause at the office when I returned to a week’s worth of backed up projects and communications? I’m very sorry to those still living with all these questions. I’m so glad I’m not.

A month ago, I quit my full-time job to be a free lance writer. It’s not that I hated the office, but the schedule sucked my will to live, and I’ve vowed that no matter what becomes of my writing career, I will live by my own schedule from now on. So after I left the office for the final time, I bought a plane ticket. I’m going to be traveling with my life partner (and bridge partner), McKenzie, who is also self-employed and free to roam the earth on his own terms. Our first stop is Salem, Oregon. He grew up there, but I’ve never been. I’m excited to see it, but we’ll be there less than day before taking off on a drive through Oregon and California en route to Reno, Nevada.

We’re going to play in a bridge tournament there with a few of the other under-30 players in the American Contract Bridge League. There aren’t many of us. You and your friends may not play bridge, but I’m sure all your grandparents love the game.

Between bridge hands, I’m hoping to make $100 last as long as possible in the casinos. I’ll be sure to report back on my success or failure in that regard when the time comes.

Reno is just the start of what is shaping up to be a whirlwind year of new places and faces for me, and I really can’t wait to get on with it.

I’m too young to have regrets, but I have always regretted how little traveling I did during and after college. I was so anxious to be an adult that I took summer classes, worked full time, graduated early, and bought a house, all before I could legally drink. Those “achievements” meant that I’d never do the backpacking across Europe thing, or the two week cross country drive, or any of the other adventures my friends were having while I was working all the time to pay for the life I thought I wanted. Luckily, being young means that I don’t have to regret this forever.

I’m cutting back on responsibilities and picking up on adventure, reclaiming my time, and stepping out of what you might call my comfort zone. But that term doesn’t work for me, because offices and sleep deprivation and unrealized wishes were never all that comfortable for me. Until recently, I also wasn’t comfortable with the idea of leaving it all behind. After all, it’s a big risk. Credit card debt is my biggest fear — so you see how giving up a salary made this a difficult decision for me. But it was definitely the right decision.

It will be so wonderful to write about things I’ve done instead of the things I want to do.