Dad

My dad has this impeccable talent for spending weeks or months of his time planning trips for us to take, only to essentially improvising the entire thing once we get there. Or at least most of it. He's also, somewhat ironically, the kind of person who has to have his schedule - which, unfortunately, doesn't make that relaxing of a vacation a lot of the time. I mean, I don't mind knowing that we have things scheduled, places to be at certain times. That's the nature of trying to do things, and I like getting to go and have unique experiences. The problem is more in when that requires me to wake up.

There are times when my dad decides that it makes sense - on vacation - to make a reservation for something at 9 am. In a city that's a two hour drive from where we currently are. Now, I mean, I know I'm going to enjoy doing whatever it is that he's going to schedule for us. Our interests align quite well. It's just that I don't want to have to wake up at 5:30 to allow time for showering, breakfast, traffic, and the inevitability of us getting lost. And I do mean inevitability.

Because that's the other thing that my dad does on vacation. He thoroughly enjoys driving - which doesn't make sense, considering how much he complains about driving, but he's like that with most things - and so when we have a little time to spare, that's what he usually goes for. He just starts driving. Sometimes in circles, sometimes he'll just pick a direction on the highway and go. And if you've ever driven anywhere for any length of time in any capacity ever, then you know how poorly that's going to end. I can't begin to tell you how many close calls we've had on timing because of this.

And not even just close calls. We have definitely had to cancel plans because we were late, because Dad thought it would be a good idea to take the scenic route, which ended up being less scenic and more problematic. I mean, don't get me wrong. We've seen some beautiful sights on these excursions. But they've also so much as doubled our travel times. And then he'll complain about traffic, as if that couldn't have been avoided by just following the initially planned pathway.

He just has an amazing knack for this kind of stuff. And he doesn't think it through from the eyes of the people he's traveling with. To him it makes sense to make these kinds of early morning plans, because he knows that he's going to be up at 5 am anyway. And then it makes sense to go on random excursions that risk making us miss those plans because... I don't know. Spontaneity? Which he does seem to enjoy, since he'll start making these plans and early morning reservations at the drop of a hat. Despite how inconvenient it may be for anyone else.

But hey. He's my dad, and I've experienced some amazing stuff thanks to him. I just wish maybe he'd do it a bit later in the day most of the time.