The Big Ride

It has turned out that due to work considerations another Big Ride will not be possible; not even a “Little Ride” of several weeks as I had hoped. But as much as I will miss the romance of the open road we won’t be without a vacation. What we have decided to do instead is a “conventional” vacation–flight and hotels in two cities. The plan is three days in Montreal and five in Quebec City. We spent one day in Montreal last year in week three of the Big Ride and really loved the city. It will be good to spend some more time there. So we’ll fly into Montreal then after three days and nights we will take the train to Quebec City. One of the ways that Canada is so cool is that they have great rail service, unlike most of the United States. Our thinking about Quebec City is based on hearing that it is the most European of any city in North America. Much of that is because it is the oldest city in North America north of Spanish settlements on New Mexico, California, and Florida. The original 17th century walled city is still intact. Europe is beyond reach this summer so this is a good substitute.

While this should be a fun trip the downside is that the “conventional” vacation is so much more costly than the Big Ride concept. We will probably be spending as much in these eight days as we did in nearly a month of the Big Ride. Airfare and downtown hotels are very costly. It will be a good comparison to do the normal vacation now that we’ve done the Big Ride.

I love to travel, but it has one huge, insurmountable drawback: it costs money. Yes, there are writers out there who claim you can travel for next to nothing but they are either outright lying or trying to sell you something; usually both. Yes you can and should spend much less than the average person when traveling but traveling costs money. You can talk a tough line of stoic bare-bones travel stories, going all Jack Kerouac or vagabonding but the reality is you need to pay to eat and pay to be someplace and pay to move from place to place, unless you walk or hitchhike–the former largely impractical, the latter fraught with perils. Money for travel is over and above the money for everyday life. You still have to pay rent or the mortgage at your home while you travel and keep the utilities on, pay insurance, etc. The Big Ride was possible because we were able to live without rent and utilities for three months, which is not something we can do every year. The budget will be much smaller, but one can’t not travel!