I should be packing – we are leaving Sunday for a 4-6 week camping trip to the Pacific Northwest. Today my task is to get most of the food in the trailer so I sat down to make lists. I also checked e-mails and looked at the photos I took yesterday on our photo safari to the old train yard. It was called the Junction by people who lived in Jackson, because the city was the central location in Michigan for passenger and shipping rail services. During the heyday of rail travel, there were trains coming and going from all directions. You can tell that I have been derailed from my original goal of packing.

I am feeling a little unsettled today, which is probably why I am writing this post instead of getting ready to leave. Transitions from home to travel do that to me, but I think it is also the way we plan on traveling. I decided I didn’t want to travel on a schedule and that is unsettling for someone who likes to have everything planned out and under control.

We know what direction we are traveling in and we have decided that we will go to the upper peninsula to get on highway 2 on Sunday. We also know we want to stay at Marquette on Lake Superior for that first night. Because we prefer the state highways to the interstate, we will take highway 2 across the northern US to Glacier National Park but our plans are pretty loose after that. Maybe I should call our plans flexible because that sounds better. I can be in control of my destiny while still being flexible.

Manual Track Switch

I really like the idea of being able to shift tracks if we find something interesting. I bought several tour books and have been marking things I’d like to do. We can read these and plan our trip as we go, one of the benefits of being retired and having a flexible time frame.

Mechanism that switches the tracks.

Another reason we have chosen to be flexible instead of all-planned-out is that I need to travel at a pace that is comfortable. On last year’s trip to Newfoundland we both needed and enjoyed having a slow day every three or four days – maybe do a little sightseeing but also have time for an afternoon nap. This slow day can be our day for planning “which way” we want to go on the next leg of our journey. But now I have to get packing!

Cee has provided her readers with weekly opportunities to post photos and stories of “which way” they are moving through the world. You can see for yourself by clicking here.