Planning trips, vacation, camping, and otherwise

[Arty]

For several years, around this time of year, plan out nearly every trip we will make for the calender year. That may not sound like much work, but 90% of our trips include other extended family (inlaws, brother, sister, etc). So there's a lot of phone calls, texts, and email flying back and forth...then once you nail down a date, you have to nail down where, place to stay, etc..


An example for us would be that since Jan 1, we have planned (made reservations, paid for, and have time off) for a:

3 day weekend in VA beach
5 days in Kentucky (My home sweet home)
3 day weekend camping (locally)
6 night camping trip (in Bath County, VA)
4 day weekend in Nagshead (Father's day trip)
Week long stay in Nagshead (Rented a house, late July)
4 night camping trip (again, Bath County)


PLUS - somewhere between KY and Nagshead I'm hoping that I'll be headed to LBL or somewhere to meet all of youse guys!


Does everyone do this? The reason I ask is that I was talking a friend I hadn't seen in a while earlier today. I went to get gas for the chainsaw and he was at the gas station. That turned into a 45 minute conversation at the little deli inside the gas station. As we caught up, we talked about kids, etc...and what was coming up. I mentioned that we've been "planning our year"...he laughed and poked at me a little. He said no one does that much planning. He said it's more fun to 'wing it'.


I got home and told my wife about it, and she said another teacher at her school basically told her the same thing earlier last week.

Are we WEIRD? I mean, I know we're weird...but are we normal weird, or weird weird!?!?


With kids and work, I don't see how you COULDN'T plan out many months in advance.

[Buckrub]

You're really weird.



I have 13 people that destroy any plan I ever made, and make plans I never dreamed of. I'm just an Indian in this Tribe.

[LJ3]

OCD man... it comes in handy sometimes. I'm not a planner if I don't have to. Lucia has the same planning tendencies as you do but we call it ATD (attention to detail). From my perspective in life, it's a double edge sword.

[Thumper]

Well, we do it also, but there's a good reason for it. Lynn works for the Hyatt and gets 12 nights/year at any Hyatt/Hyatt Place in the world for free ... BUT ... every frigging employee in the whole Hyatt family gets the same ... and considering that's world wide, it can be a real battle finding openings. They're a lot like frequent flyer miles ... there are only so many rooms blocked off for employees and there are black-out dates for heavy holidays and such (or regional stuff like bowl games, Mardi Gras, etc). SO .. she has reservations planned out up to 12 months in advance. On top of the freebies, she also gets employee rates any time she wants (except for the black-out dates) so we can get rooms for something like $35-$40/night. It can still get a bit iffy at times, but if we have no specific time/date we want to be someplace, we just plan around the availability. If there's something going on where we need a specific date (family reunion, etc, etc.) ... we just plan a little farther out.

On top of all that, the hotels all get together and exchange vouchers for free rooms at Christmas time, so she also gets a few freebies that way. She's pretty tight with most of the employees and many times if they get a voucher and can't use it (or simply don't want it), they'll give them to her.

When she was with Holiday Inn, we got rooms for $15/night at any Holiday Inn/Holiday Inn Express and $25/night at any (Holiday Inn) Crowne Plaza. She'd make weekend reservations at a bazillion different beach properties on about every weekend in the summer ... up to a year in advance. Once the time got closer, we'd decided if or where we wanted to go and just cancel the others. Heck, we could spend every weekend on the beach (with free breakfast) for $30!

Now before my medical problems when I traveled a lot, I'd usually plan my trips as far ahead of time as the airlines would let me buy tickets. That's because I usually used frequent flyer miles and those bastards usually only allocate about 2 seats per flight ... so the odds of getting a seat are not even as good as the average Vegas odds on the tables.

But that said ... yeah, you're weird!

[BarryBobPosthole]

We plan and save for three vacations a year, one for two weeks in the summer and then my canada trip every August. I take two weeks off over Christmas and New Years but we typically don't go any where with the wife working a lot over theholidays any more. Everything else we plan on the go. I have 37 vacation days to use this year so I'll take a little over what
I normally do. Hopefully that'll be fishing somewhere and meeting up with you peckerwoods.

BKb

[Arty]

My wife is definitely OCD. For me it's a nice way to look forward to time away during long days and weeks at work.


BBP- 37 days! Shiiiit! That's a bunch! Good for you!

I get 24, plus 7 holidays.

[BarryBobPosthole]

that's the result of carrying over a few days every year for several years. Started with Katrina when we worked our butts off on network stuff and couldn't take vacation the last quarter of the year and I then there was a strike and they wouldn't let us take off for almost half a year. I don't earn that many days every year but when you carry over that many days it adds up fast. I finally hit the max I could carry over a couple years ago so now I try to carry over as few as possible. Its just not possible to take that many days off though in one year.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

Lemme know when you're headed to Bath County for the 4 days. Maybe we can hook up.

[Buckrub]

What's today?

I have 359 vacation days left this year.

[Arty]

Lemme know when you're headed to Bath County for the 4 days. Maybe we can hook up.

We will be there May 23-May 27
And again Aug 29-Sep 3

[Bwana]

My wife is a planner as well which can be both a blessing and a curse.