I’ve planned dozens of trips that I’ve never taken. My dad used to say, “It doesn’t cost anything to dream.” It’s fun to visualize traveling everywhere from A – Z: Australia to Zimbabwe or closer to home in Sanpete from Axtell to Zaple Canyon. (As you can see, it’s tough to find a “Z” destination in Sanpete. But you got what I was saying, right?)

A getaway vacation, whether short or long, nearby or faraway, can be refreshing and rejuvenating. Sometimes it’s good to see other places to remind ourselves of how good we have it here. Sometimes we get ideas from other places that could help us make things a little better around here.

We need to stretch ourselves a little bit and leave the familiar behind occasionally. Mark Twain was a big fan of traveling. He had lots to say about it. One quote I like from him is: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

We got back from a vacation in New England a month or so ago. There is so much to see, no matter where in the world you go, if you just keep your eyes open. (As Yogi Berra astutely said, “You can observe a lot by just watching.”)

Going to the Robert Frost farm in Derry, New Hampshire was a highlight. Much of his poetry was inspired from his time there. Though I haven’t been to Frost’s grave in Vermont — yet, I like his headstone epitaph: “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”

A while back, a family in my neighborhood went to Yellowstone National Park. The T-shirt one of the kids came back with was fun. It reads: “Bears love People.” It shows bears chasing people. I guess the message is that bears love people like kids love ice cream.

National parks are a great place for family trips. Over the years, the parks in Utah, especially Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon have been favorites with us.

As a young lady, my mother-in-law worked at Bryce as a chambermaid. You can still see her in a picture outside the entrance to the restaurant in the lodge. In those olden days, all the workers used to gather in front of the lodge and did “sing aways” as the tour buses loaded up and drove away.

Fishing and boating trips are popular with Sanpeters. I know several people who love Lake Powell and take trips down there fairly regularly. My daughter and her family love it down there. Being on a boat together as a family is good bonding time. It’s hard to run away from each other when you’re surrounded by water.

Our family has had a history of taking spontaneous trips. Sometimes we haven’t even known where we’re going by the time we leave home. I believe I’ve told the story here before of our most famous expedition of this sort.

It was a weekend trip which ended up in Disneyland. We packed up and pulled out of the driveway after work on a Friday evening. We had to make a decision: north or south. We went south. At each junction we made another decision. Half-way through the night, we entertained the idea of Disneyland kind of jokingly. After driving through the night and taking a nap or two, we drove into Disneyland on Saturday morning about the time the park opened.

(I read in a memoir book by Bill Bryson about his dad taking the family on a car trip to California when Bill was a kid. It was a surprise to the family when the dad drove into the Disneyland parking lot. Bill looked at his parents and asked, “Do I have leukemia?”)

After having a fun day in the amusement park (that my grandpa used to call “DizzyLand”), we “recharged our batteries” with a night’s sleep.

On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a gourmet breakfast overlooking the ocean with food provided by that well-known and popular “Golden Arches Restaurant.” We then rode home and were back to work on Monday morning.

Call it “itchy feet,” “cabin fever,” or whatever, but there are times when the urge to travel, or just get away, simply hits. That trip we took was a memory maker, but I don’t recommend that method as your main way of taking vacations. That unplanned trip does demonstrate though what is possible when one is in that sort of a mood.

My next planned trip? I’m looking into a road trip to Southern Arizona in the fall. BYU plays a football game against the Wildcats in Tucson. It’s a good excuse to hit the road and see a cactus or two.

Get away for a trip sometime this season, Sanpete. It’ll do you good – even if it’s just for a night or two up on one of our beautiful mountains. Or if you’re adventurous, jump in the car and start driving and see where you end up. You might surprise yourself with an unforgettable memory.

— Merrill