Or does it begin when you pull out the suitcase? The pack and load.
Or is it the moment you realized the vacation is 'x' days away? The countdown.
Maybe it's all of the above. Vacations don't have solid start days and times because the anticipation of the vacation produces a sense of excitement and releases positive endorphins. But what happens when the anticipation of a vacation gets interrupted?
I had the not so pleasant experience of having my vacation plans interrupted by car issues. In the course of doing my due diligence before venturing out westward, I got my oil changed. This is two days before my vacation is scheduled to begin. The same evening after the oil change, a series of scary lights lit up my dashboard. My endorphins plummeted and by anxiety skyrocketed. I really tried to focus on the silver lining, "At least the lights came on before the trip and not during," but I was stressing.
Worry #1 - What if there's something really wrong with the car and it cost a lot of money to fix. I won't be able to go on my vacation.
Worry #2 - What if they can fix it but have to wait until after they come back from vacation before the part is put on. I can't go on my vacation.
These two thoughts were cyclones in my brain interrupting my sleep.
I took the car into the my trusted mechanic and since he was planning on going on vacation the following week, I knew I had to wait. The car was dropped off and a friend took me to get a rental. This was the first hit to my vacation budget.
I called the mechanic later in the afternoon and he did not get a chance to look at the car yet. This meant the vacation schedule was taking a hit now because I didn't have the car to "pack and load." Additionally, I no longer had a sense of anticipation since I didn't know when or if I would be getting the car and leaving, no "countdown."
A few years ago, the New York Times published an article "What a Great Trip! And I'm not Even There Yet"in which the author says, "Taking a vacation won't necessarily make you happier. But anticipating it will."
To get ready for this trip I built up a playlist on my AmazonPrime Music for the long haul drives. I even put some tracks together specifically for the national parks I was going to visit, lots of Enya and Celtic Women for Arches National Park which ending up being perfect. I improved the design for car camping this summer, such as adding a cargo net to the interior roof of the car and fabric screens for the side windows which allowed me to leave the windows down for ventilation and block out bugs. I mapped and remapped the route for the trip, Skyped with my pals that I planned to visit, and created a new travel journal to record my experiences. Stephanie Rosenbloom says, "Doing this allows us to build up positive expectations, to relish how enjoyable the experience might be."
But what happens to all that anticipation when the much lauded vacation is suddenly in jeopardy? All I can tell you is it's not fun anymore and fraught with disappointment. But there's not much that can be done when stuck in vacation purgatory. I made a Plan A, Plan B, all the way to a Plan G but having a plan does not build the anticipation back up.
Turns out the car issue was an easy fix. To get it back and save money on the rental, I had to scrabble with my work schedule and a friend's schedule to drop off the rental and pick up the car. Then rush home for the pack and load. All the rushing, scrambling and last minute errands added to my anxiety as I tried to stay as close to my original countdown as possible. The anticipation never fully recovered because it was drowned by the stress.
That's why I'm making the most of my vacation journey experience, because, contrary to the New York Times article, this vacation will make me happier. It started the moment I filled up the tank and reached "the point of no return."
* Fun Information. NPR did a talk about vacations, "The History of the Vacation Examined," that's worth listening to or reading.
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