Beneath the Wraps

  Would you prefer to plan your vacation or be spontaneous? I enjoy spontaneity overall.   Of course it is helpful to have  a destination and find things to  do along the way Not having reservations has proved  more difficult than planning ahead. (see here )   But planning has disadvantages as well. I suppose if you are familiar with the drive and  area  making reservations may work to your  advantage or having the hotel as  the destination and not  a stop on the way.   You don't know when during the drive  you will be tired.   If you're not familiar with the drive  you may accidently book yourself in  a seedy or industrial area.   You may misread the map and  book yourselves 40 or 80 miles (or more)  out of your way.   You may be rerouted due  to elements or traffic.   I prefer spontaneity.  

          My youngest son seems to be making more money than he knows what to do with.  Boo hoo, huh?  His wife's family has paid for a few outings for the entire family - like going to Mexico.  Recently he just purchased tickets to go to Hawaii.  Roland and I never traveled.  We barely had enough to feed the family.            There was one time we had gone to Logan to see my brother's performance in something.  I can't even remember what.  Each of the boys had made arrangements to sleep over with various friends and had not shown any interest in going to the play.  Since none of the boys were at home and Roland felt too tired to drive back, we just got a room to spend the night.          Our youngest (the first to have made sleeping arrangements) calls about midnight to find out where we are.  Apparently the sleeping over plans had fallen through and h...

  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-11/-no- vacancy-signs-are-vanishing-from-america-s-highways              I may not remember every detail of every family vacation I took with my parents and sibs, but I do remember looking at hotel signs from the freeway and taking the ramp to find lodging.  We had not made reservations as there was a time it didn’t seem pertinent to do so.  We would look for signs that said “Vacancy” and preferred lodging with a pool and later cable seemed to be a priority.  I don’t recall having had any problems with finding lodging that way.  I suppose it is still possible to do it that way in some areas but have learned that as the decades pass and more apps and technology are introduced – a reservation will at least secure where you may want to go.   I still would rather throw caution to the wind and find something along the way instead of booking in an area I’m really not familiar w...