vacation ideas

An imminent crisis has been getting closer and closer. That is, the question of what I should do for a vacation this year. I have a couple of weeks scheduled off in September and I desperately need to come up with something cool, fun, and most of all cheap. And preferably something that can be done alone and still be a great experience, as I seriously doubt I'll be joined by anyone (especially since zero people know and/or have been invited so far). It's July now so I'm down to two months to either figure out something to do or think of another way to burn up those days.*

My plan when I scheduled my time off for the year (that was in December) was to go overseas. I have done this twice before and loved it both times. Well, after I got used to it anyway. I figured since I'd never been out east I'd give that a try--maybe Japan (coasters!) or some islands out that direction. But, such an idea fails the third criterion given above. And with my recent land purchase and hopefully an upcoming home purchase requiring loads of capital on hand, capital that I don't have as it is, I certainly can't spare much to throw at leisure stuff.

So I figured I'd stay in the states and go park-hopping out west. Cheap, lots of outdoors and nature stuff, learn a bit about camping and solo travel and such. I've only been to the Rockies once and I've never been to any national parks west of the Mississippi, so it certainly has the excitement and exploration factors going for it. But there's that climate thing. Nah, it's September, I thought. No biggie, should have nice semi-cool weather around that time. Well, makes sense to a hick like me who's never lived outside the midwest for any good length of time, but alas, elevation is working against me. A quick check of the expected weather for that time of year seems to point to one of three scenarios happening wherever I go: (1) I freeze my @$$ off, in which case I probably wouldn't enjoy the camping too much; (2) I get rain and flash floods with little or no warning, in which case I might not enjoy the day stuff too much; or (3) the temperatures vary widely with next to no predictability and I'd have to constantly add and remove layers of clothing to compensate, in which case both days and nights could suck. So, based on climate, I either need to do a heck of a lot more research into this idea or, more likely, scrap it in favor of something easier to plan in the short amount of lead-up time I have to work with.

Something that has crossed my mind is a missions trip stateside or overseas, but it's a bit late for that. There's the support and fundraising crap to deal with, and that takes months. Not to mention the planning and networking and stuff. Too bad, should have crossed my mind months ago. But maybe someday. Oh to turn back the clock a few years and know what I know now. All that time and no job to tie me down...damn.

There are probably plenty of other options out there but I just haven't thought of them or checked into them yet. I'm not very good--okay, I'm terrible--at this whole planning ahead thing; seems I work best when it's crunch time and I have to do something. Hence I'm still trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Alaska has come to mind though I know very little about it and the cost could be prohibitive. Coaster tour...out, most parks of interest are closed or weekend-only by then. A New England trip has been suggested, but how cheap could that be? And how much outdoors stuff is there to do up there? And the people...man, gotta use that time to get away from those types and remind myself that there are still good, decent folk in the world. I've thought about a cruise, but what fun is there in being out on a boat or on a beach for long stretches without someone to keep you company? Or, the easiest thing to do would be to just go hang around at home (I still consider Arkansas home), but I don't really know many people there anymore and I'd get bored to death in a matter of days. Although I'm sure my father could put me to work on something and at least keep me occupied--oh wait, I don't know crap about any of that work.

So...back to where I started. What to do...?

*My employer doesn't allow carryover of vacation time from one calendar year to the next. Yeah, I know, that's total bullbleep. And their rationale is bullbleep too but that's for another day. In any case, it seems to be a yearly policy now instead of the one-time constraint it was initially advertised as. So, whatever time I don't take off I lose--no comp time, no buybacks, no nothing. Therefore I must figure out how to use that time. I guess it's not such a terrible dilemma to have, but I'd hate to just blow it off and end up doing nothing more than the usual.