Background

When I took my extended train trip, I went with the intention of the trip being “slow travel”. I don’t know the official definition of slow travel, if there is one.  I am going to define it as (1) staying longer at a destination than you normally would, (2) keeping the agenda light and (3) spending more time on the trip doing things not on the “top ten list of things to do” at that location than things on the list. The first part of the definition, staying longer at the destination than you normally would facilitates the second and third parts. I have one personal example on the benefits of slow travel below.

I also provide a personal example of establishing traditions in the context of travel. Establishing traditions in travel or otherwise such as holidays, sets a timestamps for a particular event. Those timestamps help us remember those meaningful events. Otherwise, time can run together and distinct memories can fade.

The first example is an excerpt from my book written about my stop in Alpine, TX. To put this in context, I spent three nights in a town way out in West Texas with a population of a little over 6,000.

Slow Travel – Alpine, TX

“When I consider spending three days in this small Texas town way out in west Texas, not close to anything, it recalls a concept I have heard on the many podcasts I listen to called “slow travel.” I have never seen a formal definition of this concept. For my purposes, I will define it as a noun and pronounce it with a heavy emphasis on slow. It is often characterized by staying at a place longer than you normally would, having long breakfasts in a greasy spoon cafe, and spending hours on a park bench with a book. It may even involve a journal or sketch pad. When you slow travel, you are not checking off boxes or the top things to see at the destination. The opposite approach I normally take as a tourist.”

(The above sketch I drew on a pocket notebook, sitting on a park bench. My version of slow travel.)

Establishing Traditions – Summer Vacation in Florida

The next example is the establishment of a tradition in travel. It relates to our summer family vacation when the kids were young.  We went to the same beach area in Florida about six times over an eight-year period. 

The 600 miles plus drive was made to Florida each summer.  The date was typically in June before it got too hot and too deep into hurricane season. We did the things you normally do on a family beach trip. Played in the waves, built sandcastles and threw frisbees or beach balls in the shallow of the waves. For the trip, we typically stayed Saturday to Saturday leaving very early on that Saturday morning to make it back to Houston by days end.  We had a Friday night tradition before that early Saturday morning. 

This rental house had an DVD player with a very limited selection of DVDs that continued to be there every year when we returned. So early on in this tradition, we went through this limited selection of DVDs and chose “What About Bob?”. That movie is a goofy comedy, yet funny and entertaining. Maybe we were drawn to it because the movie takes place a a summer home where a family is on summer vacation. Eating pizza while we watched “What About Bob” became a tradition for all the other times we took this annual pilgrimage.   So if you ask any of us about those trips, there is a good chance that watching that goofy movie while we ate pizza will be one of the first things that is recalled about those trips.

Think about a vacation you took.  What do you remember about it? Is that memory something on the top ten list of things to do there?  Or maybe not? What’s your “What About Bob?”.

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