The uninspired vacationer

Is the anticipation of a vacation more exciting than the vacation itself?  For months, I have been planning a huge vacation with my family.  My son is going to be moving out of the house and heading to Ohio to finish school in July, and he has put in his notice at his job to coincide with our last big vacation as a family.  Actually, this is going to be our ONLY big vacation as a family.  My husband does not like to travel.  Oh, he will go somewhere if he has to, and will even eventually enjoy himself.  For instance, as long as I can remember, I have longed to be somewhere else besides wherever I am now.  I was bitten with the bug of wanderlust early on in life and for years I have come back from one trip with nothing on my mind but the next place I could go.  Not so with my husband.  He is content to stay home, going about his business and  content to stay home and care for the livestock (presently one standard poodle and four cats). As our 25th anniversary approached in 2008, I informed him that if he wanted to spend another 25 years with me, we were going somewhere as a couple.  I would pay for it, he could pick the spot, but we were going someplace.  He picked Germany, I purchased a tour with Cosmos, a wonderful budget touring company, and in October of 2008 we had a fabulous 11 day tour of the highlights of Germany.  That was our second vacation as a couple, the first being a trip to Wyoming in 1985, which just happened to coincide with his oldest sister's wedding in Nebraska.

But....even though my son is 24 and my daughter is 18, we have never taken a long trip as a family, unless you count a few weekend trips to Cumberland Gap.   Ever.  Unless you count a trip from Knoxville to Indiana in 1999 to attend the funeral of my grandfather, any trips we have taken have been either me or the kids, or him and the kids.  He has taken them to Pensacola, Florida a few times, sometimes separately, sometimes together, to go visit the church of one of his favorite preachers, but for the most part, if my children get a vacation, it's because I take them.  I took each of them to Europe, at separate times, when they were nine years old.  I took them on a tour of Civil War battlefields, also stopping in Washington DC for a day.  I've taken them to Myrtle Beach twice.  I've taken them more times than I can count up to Indiana to visit my family.  And I took my daughter on a cruise to the Bahamas after I paid for my son to go on a four-month mission trip in Ukraine.

But we've never gone anywhere fun with the four of us together, and now we are.  In a week and a half, we will start off on our first family vacation.  The kids and I are making a huge circle around the United States, from Knoxville TN to the Grand Canyon, from the Grand Canyon to Wyoming, from Wyoming back to Indiana, and then back home again.  And my husband is going with us, at least as far as Las Vegas, when he will hop on a plane and fly back to Knoxville to get home in time for billing at his job.  I confess to a little worry.  We took a few vacations as a family when I was a child, and without fail they were usually disasters, with my volatile alcoholic father eventually losing his cool at being forced to travel in close quarters with the family he could usually go to work to get away from.  My husband does not drink, but he does have a short fuse, and I'm wondering if four adults in a rental car is going to knit us even closer as a family, or illustrate that there is a reason that this family does not take vacations together.

For months I have been thinking and planning about this big trip, and six weeks ago I sat down and starting planning the trip day by day.  I've made hotel reservations and car rental reservations.  I've made arrangements for us to stay in the cabins in a bunch of different KOA campgrounds (kampgrounds).  I'm doing great guns on my summer class so I can turn in my assignments early (this being one of them).  And the children are saving their change to do their part to help pay for the gas that I don't even want to THINK about on this very long road trip.  But suddenly, I'm now uninspired.  The trip that I have not been able to wait for, that I have lovingly planned and anticipated for months now, is almost a reality, and I am wondering if the actual trip will be as exciting as it has been to plan and to wish for it.  It remains to be seen!