Change In Plans

India and I went to Bermuda for four days to plan our trip.

Overall, Bermuda is great: convenient to get to, not overly touristy, beautiful beaches and climate, friendly and relaxed culture, sophisticated, good for running, swimming, etc.

Bermuda is also wildly expensive. We stayed at The Reefs hotel, which was awesome, but cost more per night than most hotel rooms in Manhattan. By renting a house, it can probably be done less expensively, but everything was priced at a premium to the U.S. I think they discourage budget travel pretty actively (like Botswana does), and it doesn’t seem to hurt them.

We ran a lot, mostly on the Railway Trail, which was the route of the trans-island train that was discontinued in 1948. The roads are narrow, and felt a little hazardous, so it was great to have the trail.

We also did a lot of trip planning, and have the basics laid out for the next several months. There are a lot of details to firm up, and bookings to be made. We agreed to start the real trip in mid-August with Northern Africa (Morocco) and Southern Europe (Spain, Greece, Turkey). Already, what seemed like a vast expanse of time is feeling too short and too hurried.

There are also a lot of details to follow up on in the U.S. before we go. The closing on our house in New Jersey is supposed to happen today. I need to finalize my separation agreement, which has taken a lot longer than expected. We are establishing Tennessee residency, which requires some legwork. No shortage of things to do.

On top of all of this, I am definitely starting to feel a psychological change. This isn’t a vacation: there is no job to go back to. There is no physical place called home at the moment: home is where India and the kids are. A lot of things that others have done for me for a long time (particularly travel), I am doing myself. It is difficult to answer the basic questions: “What do you do?” and “Where do you live?”

The psychological change is an important part of this, I think. I haven’t really processed the change in plans very thoroughly.