The Mahnomen Pioneer

FOR A REAL VACATION
(Bemidji Sentinel)

Now that the summer automobile touring season is getting under way, the American motorist might as well sit down and ask himself just what it is that he is going after when he takes his vacation trip.

The answer, in most cases, of course, would be—rest, relaxation, amusement, a change of scene. Yet many of us, by trying to cover too much territory, by adhering too closely to schedule, by refusing to leave our ordinary habits of life behind us, fail to get any of these things. We come back from our vacations more tired than when we started out.

It is a commonplace expression that "you need another vacation to get rested up from your first one."

Probably it is the motorist who suffers in this way more than anyone else. The reason, generally, is that he tries to go too far and do too much. He makes his destination his goal, and not the mere fact of wandering.

Why put yourself on schedule when you take a vacation drive, anyway? Why make up your mind that you are going to get to this, that or the other place regardless of any obstacles? You might as well be traveling about on business. It puts you under a strain. You do not get the rest you need.

A simpler, much more enjoyable plan, is to start out without any very definite notion where you are going and with no set schedule whatever. In this way the real joy of motoring can be tasted. You pilot your car along at a comfortable pace—and how much less tired one gets driving at 30 miles an hour than driving at 50!—and when you find a pleasant place you stop and enjoy it. You loaf, in other words, stopping when and where you please, changing your course when you strike an interesting road; and when you get through you have been rested in body and mind and are ready for another year's work.

The man who tries that kind of vacation once will never go back to the other kind. It pays big dividends. To be free from the tyranny of watches, time tables and schedules for two weeks is a great blessing.