Dear Blog,

RE: Travel Stress and Anxiety. Well, it’s that time again. Time for our annual road trip with the pups. This time is a bit different. Our job is closing between Christmas and New Years Day. While this might sound incredible, it also makes preparing to travel a bit difficult. This difficulty is due mainly because work has been a bear due to just trying to get four weeks of work finished in just three weeks. Clients are so happy for us that we are closing. At the same time, they all want a visit before our retreat. This extra labor has equated to long stressful hours at work while reducing time at home and increasing anxiety. Am I stressed out? Sure am. But the trip will make all the extra work worth the effort.

Dog-Friendly Departure

When we are so close to departure, as we are now, we usually have completely researched the travel destination and have a basic itinerary. Generally, we are looking for dog parks, dog-friendly restaurants, vegetarian restaurants, places to hike, etc. We are seven days from travel and have yet to research anything.

Reduce Anxiety – Pack Early

The point of this blog post is to let everyone reading know, yes travel planning might be hard. Finding the time to get everything accomplished might be tough but actually, making the trip is easy. So here I am, One Week from Travel and today will be my packing day.  The weather will be a bit chillier than our home base so a little bit of planning will be needed. I am far from an over packer when I fly, yet when I drive, I want to take more than I may need. So today will include packing items from clothing, to handheld GPS, to extra batteries, to dog supplies to even extra bathroom tissue.

Once I finish the packing today, I am off to creating a basic list of things and places and hiking opportunities. Then when Monday rolls around, it’s back to long work days until next Saturday morning rolls around. That’s departure day at 5 am.

While the next seven days will be so stressful, as long as I am packed and ready to go next weekend, all of the work will be worth the entire effort. To me, nothing beats time with my family in a new city, in the woods or away from responsibilities.

So yes, planning a trip can add to the day’s stress and cause anxiety. Yes, trying to get everything in place might be a challenge. Yes, you may be exhausted from all the preparatory work.  But in the end, will travel be worth all you have endured? YES!

Much Love,

The Long Haired Traveler