Road Trip With Cordial Reset 

To what extent does visiting out of area family/friends influence your vacation plans? 

“I don’t have a favorite place. I have my favorite people and whenever I’m with my favorite people, it becomes my favorite place. “ (Nivaz Ahmad)

I must admit that I’m not a big fan of making social encounters with family/friends the main focus of our road trip vacations. The main problem in this regard relates to how acting cordial with those I visit “eats into my time” to look around at my own pace and schedule activities in the surrounding area. For I’ve often missed seeing cities on my “bucket list” notably when my guests either usher me around places in their vehicle around town or engage in continuous jawing about personal views  that don’t spark interest in me around the dining table. Prime examples of this time waste problem during past road trips nullified plans to tour Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Portland, Oregon, and the Dallas,Texas vicinity.

So a huge challenge on our upcoming road trip itinerary  that I’ve posted  in the cover photo above will be to manage my time more effectively in various locations amid the company of five different cousin settings along with a close, former neighbor friend. Some subjects to stay away from as time draining  for me during these face to face encounters include childhood memories, political rants, shopping bargains, and medical diagnoses. Shorter time limit stays of no more than two hours at a time must also be enforced to allow me more flexible time use on any given day. If I must tell a “white lie” excuse or give a firm no more often to make that happen, so be it. While Ruth and I like to do activities together, it would be wiser as well to for me to explore desired city activities on my own when my social anxiety calls for it. Finally, I must get a “better grip” on managing the daily conversational barrage of petty emails, text messages, and social media video chat  posts that often distract me from  own “plan of attack” for visiting a particular area. 

By the way, if you’ve been following my series of posts from our recent August road trip, I attach some photos taken  from additional places visited that were not earlier publicized during that time. 

Buffalo, New York