Vacation Hero, the Video Game, (not really)

This summer we were not sure what to do on vacation. Normally we have our plans made, and our anticipating the sweet joy of irresponsibility by now. This year we were uninspired. So, we decided to spend a week in a small cabin at a state park. My wife suggested we go a little farther, maybe another state.

We drove through West Virginia on a trip to North Carolina a couple of years ago, and I fell in love with the state. Steep mountains, deep valleys, mist covered and beautiful. Green, explosions of green, bursting from the mountains that climb straight to heaven. So, I chose West Virginia.

"Find a nice place and make some reservations." My wife said.

"What?!?! I don't make reservations." I said, in shock.

My wife normally picks the place we stay. Carefully comparing cabins, looking at pictures, reading reviews, measuring locations against some sort of internal grading system. She spends hours researching, weighing, analyzing choosing. And she always comes up with a great place. She is thorough, careful and considerate.


I pick a place and start panicking. Then I look at other places and start hyperventilating. Then I go back to the first place and realize it might be ok, and then I fall completely to pieces, and start looking for something, anything that might make sense in a world gone mad, filled with cabins surrounded by God knows what, filled with terrors unimaginable. George Bernard Shaw said "you cannot be a hero without being a coward." I'm covered.

Traveling Mascot i

Then I go back to the first place, make a reservation and start putting my affairs in order because I know the end is near. Sweat beads on my brow, my hands shake, I start to develop a nervous tic, and at night I hear burglars.

"But, I am much better at picking the traveling mascots, and you are much better at picking the place we stay." I explain, in my most logical, reasonable, careful voice. We should both be on the on the same plane here.

"You have already picked the traveling mascot." She says, exasperated, her eyes looking to Heaven for strength.

"Just the first one, the easy one, the still photo one. I still have to pick the animated mascot."

"And the cabin," She said.

So, I picked the cabin, made the reservations, found the nearest Kroger, only 14 minutes away, chose the animated travel mascot, and rushed this video into production. No thanks to my wife. I have to do everything.