Taking a Travel Break

Many people like to travel as a way to take a break from their routine schedule. Me? I pick up a routine as a break from travel!

Ever since crossing the Oregon border on a Greyhound bus nearly two months ago, I have not stepped outside the Beaver State. That unusual cross-country move, while fun, was tiresome, and I guess I experienced a bit of travel burnout because of it. That doesn’t mean I stopped traveling per se. In fact, if you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I’ve been to lots of places, such as The Bigfoot Trap, Ashland, and just a few days ago The Oregon Vortex, to name a few. But I haven’t been going international or breezing through a dozen states, and oftentimes I come back home at the end of a travel day instead of spending the night somewhere! I’ll never completely stop traveling, but the past few weeks have been a slower, more local pace.

I haven’t spent much time in Southern Oregon in the last few years, so I’ve practically been living like a foreigner as I explore this little corner of the country. Just today, I went to the DMV so I could replace my Ohio driver’s license with an Oregon one. I also voted as a resident of this state and county. (Yay Oregon, for their mail-in-only voting system!) I guess these sorts of things officially make me a local, but it feels surreal. Perhaps now that I can no longer claim to be a traveler in this state, I’ll be motivated to travel elsewhere. But I think I need a travel break, at least for just a little bit longer.

Most people slow their travel down in the fall and winter months. In the past I may have slowed down a little during this time, but I’ve never stopped. I’ve always taken a trip with a roommate or coworker during Thanksgiving weekend, and taken a train or plane across the country to visit my parents for Christmas. But now that I’m back in the town I grew up in, I’ll likely spend these holidays right here.

So what am I doing when I don’t travel?

I’ve picked up four jobs. Four! Of course, one of those jobs is writing, and I’ll still be taking enough weekend and day trips to have something to write about. I also nanny part-time, and I use this opportunity to explore the local area with the kids. Tomorrow, I start a job at as an on-call housemother at a home for teen mothers. And next week, I’ll start training for my seasonal job at Harry and David’s headquarters. I’m hoping to use the next couple of months as an opportunity to make connections (and also money!), so that when my H&D job ends, I can take even more trips while still working around my nannying and housemothering schedule. Maybe this break will allow me to research and network enough so I can travel full-time!

Here’s the tricky part: I’m not going to be traveling much (if at all) this month, but I also signed this website up for NaBloPoMo. This challenge is an offshoot of NaNoWriMo, but instead of writing a novel in one month, participants in National Blog Post Month commit to posting every day of November. While I may not have much fresh content from new trips, I hope I can provide a post every day on packing ideas, product reviews, throwback stories, and more travel advice. I don’t know if I’ll make it, but I believe this travel break will inspire even more travel!

What travel-themed subjects should I write about during my travel break?