Readers share their experiences off the beaten track

Last Week’s Poll

It’s summer and that means… vacation!!! The most enjoyable few months of the year! Ah, the joy of family time, of warm weather, of… wait. Is that me talking? Have I forgotten the misery of vacation last year? And the year before? And the one before that? It’s always important to think ahead of time and reflect on all the things that might go wrong on vacation. Considering ample past experience, it’s not all that hard. Readers share their experiences off the beaten track.

Throwing Him Off the Scent

I have a halachah sh’eilah. When we use an Uber to head to our vacation destination, my wife insists on putting all the luggage in front of the neighbor’s house, lest the driver realize that we’ll be away and take advantage of our absence to ransack our empty home. But here’s the sh’eilah: Might he not burglarize the neighbor’s home?

My wife addresses this concern by saying, “Wasn’t it nice of Bubby to move in with the kids?” in an exceptionally loud voice, multiple times. It’s a fair-enough solution, I guess, except that I have to keep biting my tongue to stop myself from involuntarily saying, “Wait, didn’t Bubby pass away ten years ago?”

No-Fly Zone

To fly or to drive, that is the question. At first glance, it seems like flying is the quicker option while driving is the cheaper one. But sometimes, the lines are so blurred it almost turns out to be the exact opposite. When you drive, luggage is free, no matter how heavy, so you have to bring lots of it — and that costs money. When you fly, you run the risk (not a very unlikely one) of having your flight delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Until it’s canceled.

The final psak: Drive. Especially if you’re headed to Lakewood. Because there are no airports on Forest Avenue and so either way, you’ll have to brave the Nine. So you may as well spend the first eight hours of the trip practicing…

Take Cover

We all know who really runs our vacations. It’s the weather apps of course. For weeks prior we research options — “Look, look! I found a site that’s predicting sun the whole week! Oh shoots. It’s for the Bahamas.”

All the sites are predicting rain for Monday and Thursday, so we figure those Groupon museum deals will really come in handy. Then we start working on the rest of the week. My app says that it will be nice. But my husband’s app says it’s going to rain on Tuesday. Hmmm. We decide to check one more site and then go with the majority opinion.

But when we inevitably wake up on Wednesday (the only undisputed sunny day), to gray skies and thunder, we remember, there’s only one Real Weatherman.

And hey, Six Flags is empty in the rain! Except for the other 600 people who have the same weather app…

Everything But the Kitchen Sink

We don’t travel light. We rent apartments, and do all our own cooking, and I keep a packing list categorized by freezer, fridge, and pantry. I have one suitcase designated for trips, and I keep it stocked with everything from three sets of potholders to foil, kitchen utensils, etc., and I just add pots and pantry items before each trip. We’ve even taken along a small folding table for eating outside on the balcony. We stop at the kitchen sink though.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 919)