A new way to travel

I am learning the Heckman way of travel. And it’s not easy.
Heckman is my wife’s maiden name (yes, you now may steal my children’s identity in a decade), and when she was growing up, Team Heckman would travel in a way that goes WAY against my style of travel.
To me, the travel part of a trip is a burden. The destination is the goal, and the faster you can get there the better. No bathroom breaks. Eat in the car. Everyone lean forward to make sure we get there at the first possible moment. Onward!
When you travel Heckman-style, there is a considerable amount of moseying. She has told me tales of getting up on a summer morning and piling in the car. She’d asked her father where they were going, and the response would be a shrug. And off they would go. I am not quite sure how you are supposed to figure your trip-completion percentage when you do not know your destination.
And they would take side trips. See something interesting on a billboard? Let’s pull off. Again, that completely throws off the 60-mph average goal. We keep these stats for a reason, people!
Our most recent trip was to North Carolina to take the kids on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. They have a “Great Pumpkin” theme right now, so we took a fantastic ride to a Peanuts-themed pumpkin patch. The kids had a great time, and I was especially impressed with the apple bobbing station. I personally find it less than desirable to dunk your head in water with other people and trying to bite an apple they may have just been nibbling. At the patch, they had these long tubes that you swiveled around in the water, trying to scoop the apples up. No bite swapping required.
We also learned an important grandparenting tip by watching another family on the train: If a two-year-old has had a looooooong day on a train and at a pumpkin patch, and she has done it wearing a fairy princess Halloween costume, and she is walking behind her grandfather with her hands up, tears strolling down here face, screaming, “Car....reeeee....me..... Car....reeeee....me..... Car....reeeee....me.....” please, Gramps – pick her up. At one point, we were standing near the tired tot when I turned to my wife and said, “Should I just go and pick her up?” My wife agreed that would definitely be odd, and possibly criminal. Amazing factoid: Once off the train, when Gramps picked her up, guess what she did? That’s right, she poked him in the eye.
Ha! Kidding! She quit crying, of course. Why? BECAUSE SHE’S TWO!
So anyway, wailing princesses aside, the trip was a great time. When I was really tested was the next morning. We woke up bright and early. Glancing at my watch, I estimated that, by the time we threw on some clothes and ran through a drive-through, we’d be up to our 60-mph average in no time. Then my wife said, “So what do you want to do today?”
Resisting every urge in my soul, I said, “We should find a nice local place to eat breakfast...right?” Baby steps.
Indeed, we found a great place (try the egg sandwich at Jimmy Mac’s in Bryson City). As we finished breakfast, I had to fight the call of the interstate. It was clear that our day was just beginning. We were Heckmaning it.
We ended up taking a drive up into the mountains and found a trail to hike up to a waterfall. The trail was only 3/10 of a mile and the waterfall resembled more of a leaky spigot, but for two kids, I consider that ample. After winding on a narrow dirt road up to the top of one of the mountains, we soon found ourselves back on one of the highways leading into town. My wife said we should probably start heading back, and that we would stop if we saw something interesting. I jumped at this opportunity, as nothing is interesting at 75 mph on the interstate, right? Homeward bound.
I will just say this: I was as surprised as anyone when I found myself pulling off the interstate in Hendersonville, flagging down a sheriff’s deputy, and saying, “Can you point me toward an apple orchard?”
You could tell my wife had a little sense of pride in seeing the king of anti-spontaneity do anything that broke from the schedule. It’s not that I am rigid and uptight. I prefer goal oriented. While pulling off an exit to pick apples may not seem that radical to you, keep in mind that I have eaten oatmeal for breakfast almost every weekday since I was a kid. Change does not come easy for me.
All in all, I will admit that it was a little liberating and refreshing just to pull off into uncharted territory and see what you see. We may have to do it again next time we travel. I should start planning it in great detail right now.