Opposites attract

Jim is a planner, a researcher...he needs information...desperately.  I often call him "Curious George."  He has to go into every situation knowing exactly what to expect.  In fact, as I write, I can see he is checking out the Mt. Bachelor website because we are going there in the morning.  Rest assured he will leave no corner of that website un-inspected.  Also know that I will be dragged to every possible area on that mountain in the time allotted.  This is fun for him.  He is an explorer at heart.

I like to fly by the seat of my pants.  I'm always saying, "let's just figure it out when we get there."  I drive Jim nuts.  I am happy to stumble along, unplanned.  Have I mentioned I drive Jim nuts?  I remember a trip we took up and down the California coast years ago where hotel reservations became a bone of contention.  We knew we wanted to stay at a particular Bed & Breakfast at Mt. Shasta but otherwise, our plans were flexible.  My idea?  Don't make any hotel reservations so we wouldn't be forced to stick to a plan.  We could go wherever we wanted and stop for the day/night when we felt like it.  Jim's reaction?  HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU NOT MAKE HOTEL RESERVATIONS??? THIS IS INSANITY!!!  I won.

Or did I?  My "plan" backfired on me many times.  Did I mention it was summertime?  In California?  Yeah, lots of you like to go there too and you were all smart enough to make hotel reservations.  Guess where that left us?  Scrambling every night to find a place to stay.  And this was back when cell phones didn't have all inclusive plans and roaming charges were steep.  We were pinching pennies as it was so extra cell phone calls were painful.  I remember one night somewhere in the Pismo Beach area, when we could not find a hotel to save our lives.  I called and called, and we drove and drove.  We finally found a room after midnight when someone cancelled very last minute.  Jim was beyond irritated with me.  I was mildly contrite, but happy to go back to my "system" the next day.  Suffice it to say, our next road trip was planned down to the nanosecond.

Another trip to Belgium found Jim violently ill one day - bad enough for him to visit the pharmacist who told him he needed bed rest.  He was devastated.  I felt bad that he was sick but I was secretly quite happy to have a day off from touring.  Jim would have none of it.  He insisted I continue to sight see.  When I assured him I was fine with a day of rest he told me to either go out and see the sights or he would drag himself out of bed and make sure I did.  He wasn't kidding.  Fast forward to me walking around Brussels in the pouring rain so I could visit the royal palace, royal chocolatier and the beer museum.  Sure, I could have sat in a cafe all afternoon and lied, but he would have known.  The next morning he bounced out of bed, no longer sick (or at least he claimed) and we resumed power touring.  No way was he going to go that far, spend that much money, and lie in bed.

So which way is better?  Who knows?  We end up sniping at each other either way.  Me, because I don't like programming every single second of a trip.  Jim, because he can't stand wasting time and must plan every single second.  It is 9:34 AM on our first full day at Sunriver and Jim has already planned our activities for the next four days.  We don't really have anything planned today and I can already tell it is driving him nuts.  I'm sure at some point today an activity will end up on our schedule.  I will enjoy it and Jim will be exceedingly glad we planned something - a win/win.  And we will both have a great time on this trip; we just have different ways of going about it.  I find it funny because we vacation to relax and end up running ourselves into the ground.  I'm sure we'll find balance at some point - it's only been 13.5 years.  We'll figure it out, right?