Vacation Prep

Buffalo, NY (Photo: Expedia)

So I've begun to piece together the plan for our road trip later this month.

Sean is coming along and he is a great travel companion. 

He just does no planning.

Wait. That's probably not fair.

I suppose he does some in that he hears me out on my inane commentary.

And yes, he does his own packing. He has, thankfully, for years.

And he knows to have whatever he needs on a plane or in a car. The nearly-forgotten DVD player escapade of 2014 was the last time that happened.

But is he going to sit down and painstakingly research routes and hotels and obsessively beat himself up over paying too much?

Does he worry about hotel reviews? Not at all.

OK. OK. This isn't about him nor is it his fault.

I do this to myself. If I were to leave the planning to Sean we'd likely never go. To be honest, some things we do are a result of him asking me if I'm interested in going to something.

Then I plan it.

And so here we are.

It will be from Greenwich to Buffalo for the road group meeting up there before heading to Pittsburgh (hmm. Wonder why?) for a few hours and onto a night in West Virginia (yes, I'm serious). Then down to North Carolina before heading back up the east coast. Sean will get dropped off with friends in Maryland and I'll head home on my one.

A good old-fashioned road trip it is!

But that means planning the hotels out. I scrutinized every overpriced place to lay our heads in Buffalo before finally committing to the place that I'd lined up for at least a week. The hotel page sat open on my laptop like a ripened piece of fruit waiting to be eaten.

Some of my anxiety is the unknown I suppose. I've never been to Buffalo. In fact, I've never been west of Interstate 81 in New York. That means I've been as far as Binghamton and up to Syracuse.

The unknown of this trip actually excites me. But, when it comes to committing money to a hotel in downtown Buffalo for two nights, well, I get a bit anxious.

The hotel is somewhat close to Sahlen Field, where we'll attend a minor league baseball game as the hometown Buffalo Bisons take on the Scranton-Wilkes Barre RailRiders. The RailRiders, by the way, are an affiliate of the -- *checks notes * -- New York Yankees.

Also, Sahlen Field hosted the Toronto Blue Jays during the pandemic season of 2020 so I suspect we will enjoy that stadium a bit that night.

But, can we safely walk back to the hotel? 

I know. These are questions that will resolve themselves. 

The exercise here is explaining how my skull works. In reality, I'm not as concerned about Buffalo as I'm making it sound.

We'll have a good couple of days up there before heading to Pittsburgh where I have a few ideas about sites to see (do they play football there?).

The Pirates are in town that day (tempting. So tempting) but I think I want to walk around the home of the Steelers (aka, the horribly-named Acrisure Stadium) and do some "Stillers" shopping.

Oh, and probably Primanti's. Because it's Primanti's.

Then it's on to West Virginia, mountain mama (and you're dang right I'll be using that joke again). It's now a question of how far I want to drive out of Pittsburgh that night to stay. The next question is what is near the hotel for dinner and breakfast the next morning.

Yes, you know the drill -- Waffle House. Wawa. Even Sheetz will do nicely. But we do eat other things (and yes, I'm aware of my healthy, weight, etc. Thanks in advance).

So we'll figure out a place to stay with decent food. I've done my homework. I'm almost ready to book the room.

But you know what? I miss the days of the last-minute lodging decision. Back in the olden days of being my father's trusty co-pilot, I would scour Howard Johnson's guide for which location would suit us best. Fayetteville, NC? Lumberton? Florence, SC? Could we push farther? 

Then we'd show up, my mom and I would walk in, she'd ask for a room, I'd scour the brochures, and we'd have our key. 

I also miss the Priceline "Name Your Own Price" feature where something last-minute could be secured somewhat ahead a time by bidding on a room in a location. I did it a few times, including an entire three-night trip. In each case, there was that excitement of waiting for the news of if your bid was accepted and where you'd be staying.

But that's all gone.

I'll keep thinking and reviewing and finalizing.

And then we'll hit the road and it can all change on the fly.

Oh, and I'll worry about my car also. Could rental car prices maybe come down a little, please? But, honestly, I'm trying to not worry.

And yes, I'll run all of this past Sean as we get closer, even asking for his input.

No doubt he appreciates that I care what he thinks.

Ultimately, he's just happy that I take care of it.