Planning Trips

Because of some health related concerns we may not be going to the south of France as we had hoped. Even so, I am not stopping the planning process.

For every trip there are three fun aspects: planning, going, remembering. While a trip for us is usually a little less than a month, the planning takes many weeks. We look at places and figure routes and research weather and figure out what to take. We know what we don't need to carry as we find out what is available where we are going. As we often do not have a firm itinerary, we usually only book a few places to stay. This means we have to make lists of possible places where we "might" need to stay.

The remembering includes keeping some sort of general diary or journal, We collect little slips of paper like receipts. We may buy books at certain sites. Then, when we are home we have to organize them. It is fun combining them with the photos we have taken and thinking of the high points, the low points and the surprises.

So, the trip itself is only about one third of the joy and another third is the preparing. Even if we do not get to go, at least we have one third of the fun.