Calling an Audible when Traveling
Jun. 21st, 2021 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerMaine Week Travelog #15
Bangor, ME - Thursday, 17 Jun 2021, 10pm.
I've written before about how it's important to remain flexible when traveling. In American football it's called "Calling an audible". The players take positions on the field with a particular play planned, but as the quarterback scans how the defense has lined up he realizes the plan won't work well and calls out a new play on the spot.
Being ready to call an audible when traveling is important for anyone; for me and my style of travel, it's crucial. My style is based around going places and doing things— doing things much more complex than "Yes, another piña colada, please" in a beach chair, that is. Complex plans are always subject to change as conditions change. A day of bad weather or a closure can require calling an audible.
We called an audible earlier today. While we were hiking the Beech Cliffs trail we decided to bail out of Acadia a day early and head to Bangor. We'd already toughed through poor weather earlier in the week, and a closure of one trail we really wanted to hike left us with fewer interesting things to do than we'd allotted time for. Right there on the trail we decided to leave town a day early— and even checked hotel availability and rates right from our smartphones.
![Pool and hot tub at the Fairfield Inn in Bangor, Maine [Jun 2021]](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/canyonwalker/33413618/739728/739728_original.jpg "Pool and hot tub at the Fairfield Inn in Bangor, Maine [Jun 2021]")
Tonight we're in Bangor a day early. We booked an extra day at the Fairfield Inn we already had a reservation at for tomorrow night. We've got a full day of hiking planned for tomorrow, so this move actually makes our travel easier. We'll save over an hour of driving time in the morning to get to our hike, plus we'll save the time of packing up, checking out, and checking back in. Tonight we're just relaxing at the hotel, using the pool and hot tub pictured above.
The need to be ready to call an audible on this trip was evident from the planning. Not only did this trip get completely rebooked three times with different dates (due to Coronavirus) but within each set of dates I changed plans numerous times as we rearranged things we'd like to do. If I'd ever had the notion to say, "Okay, after this change, everything's final!" I would have been quickly disabused. In fact I literally wrote as we started this trip that I expected we'd have to call at least one such audible along the way.
Sometimes changes are free. It's awesome when they are. This one wasn't, though. We're paying for two rooms tonight: one at the hotel we left, because it was too late to cancel, and one where we're staying tonight. Fortunately the dollar cost is not huge compared to our travel budget. Partly that's because for tonight/tomorrow we picked an inexpensive hotel that just happens to have a nice indoors pool and hot tub. But that's also one of the keys for how to be ready to call an audible when traveling— don't spend your entire travel budget on obvious up-front costs. Hold some in reserve to seize cool opportunities that arise or fix setbacks that occur.
Bangor, ME - Thursday, 17 Jun 2021, 10pm.
I've written before about how it's important to remain flexible when traveling. In American football it's called "Calling an audible". The players take positions on the field with a particular play planned, but as the quarterback scans how the defense has lined up he realizes the plan won't work well and calls out a new play on the spot.
Being ready to call an audible when traveling is important for anyone; for me and my style of travel, it's crucial. My style is based around going places and doing things— doing things much more complex than "Yes, another piña colada, please" in a beach chair, that is. Complex plans are always subject to change as conditions change. A day of bad weather or a closure can require calling an audible.
We called an audible earlier today. While we were hiking the Beech Cliffs trail we decided to bail out of Acadia a day early and head to Bangor. We'd already toughed through poor weather earlier in the week, and a closure of one trail we really wanted to hike left us with fewer interesting things to do than we'd allotted time for. Right there on the trail we decided to leave town a day early— and even checked hotel availability and rates right from our smartphones.
Tonight we're in Bangor a day early. We booked an extra day at the Fairfield Inn we already had a reservation at for tomorrow night. We've got a full day of hiking planned for tomorrow, so this move actually makes our travel easier. We'll save over an hour of driving time in the morning to get to our hike, plus we'll save the time of packing up, checking out, and checking back in. Tonight we're just relaxing at the hotel, using the pool and hot tub pictured above.
The need to be ready to call an audible on this trip was evident from the planning. Not only did this trip get completely rebooked three times with different dates (due to Coronavirus) but within each set of dates I changed plans numerous times as we rearranged things we'd like to do. If I'd ever had the notion to say, "Okay, after this change, everything's final!" I would have been quickly disabused. In fact I literally wrote as we started this trip that I expected we'd have to call at least one such audible along the way.
But... Money!
"Okay, you like being prepared to adjust plans on the fly," you may note, "But what does that cost?"Sometimes changes are free. It's awesome when they are. This one wasn't, though. We're paying for two rooms tonight: one at the hotel we left, because it was too late to cancel, and one where we're staying tonight. Fortunately the dollar cost is not huge compared to our travel budget. Partly that's because for tonight/tomorrow we picked an inexpensive hotel that just happens to have a nice indoors pool and hot tub. But that's also one of the keys for how to be ready to call an audible when traveling— don't spend your entire travel budget on obvious up-front costs. Hold some in reserve to seize cool opportunities that arise or fix setbacks that occur.
