Quote:
Originally Posted by flatford8
Most of your trips seem to have a strict schedule and you only seem to alter your route when forced to......do you ever just take off and go wherever?..... Kind of like... Oh, this looks like a nice road.... lets take it.
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Most of my road trips have been that more laid back sort where my wife and I will get in the car with our bags, head down the street, and, when we get to a point of decision, decide which way to go then keep doing the same thing at each point of decision until we go until we're ready to stop and get the nearest dive motel for the night. But, this one to Alaska could not be that way, primarily because of it's length. Here's why:
I am not retired. And, I don't say "yet" because I don't see myself ever stopping working as long as I have the physical and mental ability to work. I love my work and make plenty of money in very little time so intend to keep going. Fortunately, I am a self employed solo practicing attorney.
The nature of my practice gives me great flexibility in my schedule to work when I want and play when I want. It's very much like being retired as far as that freedom goes. However, there is one thing I don't control. That's when my clients' hearings are scheduled several months in advance. The scheduling of those hearings are firm and not changeable except for dire emergencies like death in the family.
When AnnaRae told me that she needed to got to Houston to babysit kids for 11 days from May 12th to the 23rd, I already had a hearing scheduled on the 12th and one on the 24th. When I thought of driving Old Henry to Alaska, I knew it would be tight to do it in 11 days. And, it would have to be done without a hitch to fit in between those two hearings. If anything went wrong and there was any delay, I'd miss the hearing on the 24th, much to the damage to my client. I still intended to try.
Fortunately, my need to appear at the hearing on the 12th dropped out about a week before it. So, I could leave two days earlier to have two days of emergency buffer, just in case. It turns out I needed them because the trip is ending up taking 12 days instead of the 11 days planned.
Another thing that cuts into the "laid back" nature of all of my road trips, which I'm quite used to after so many years of it, is that I am always at work, not matter where I am, as long as I have cell phone service. I get calls from new and old clients and others all through the day that I have to take because there is no one else to do it while I'm gone. That was why those two days of no cell phone service on the Cassiar Highway was so nice, even though I thought often about all of those who were going to have to wait a day or two for me to call them back when I had service again. Also, at some time during each day, sometimes at the end and sometimes at the beginning of the day, I have to go through all of the day's mail with my secretary over Skype to deal with it. So, I am, inevitably, multitasking all the time. I don't mind. The driving relaxes me no matter what I'm doing.