My husband, daughter, stepson and I came back last night from an eight-day trip to California. We spent some time in L.A. with my father, drove up to Monterey and back (detouring around the wildfires in Big Sur,) visited friends of mine in Orange County and spent the day at Legoland in Carlsbad.
I decided from the outset of this trip that I was deliberately going to “unplug” myself from email and the internet as much as possible. I still had my cell phone so I could receive text messages, but I turned off my Twitter updates and did not access my email from the web browser functionality on my phone. The only time I got on the internet was to double-check our return flight information yesterday morning since I forgot to print out our itinerary. I could have used my father’s laptop anytime to check email, but I decided against it.
So, what was it like?
It was actually kind of liberating. I realized what a junkie I am about having information available to me all the time. There was a laptop within reach most of the week and I had to tell myself, “No, you are not going to check your email!” I even had the opportunity when I was at my friend Laurie’s house, because our friend Christina was online looking at real estate listings. (I admit it, I looked at the listings, but only because she was.) Wanting to know what’s going on at all times is addicting. Yet, it was also refreshing and less stressful to be disconnected from it too. Besides, we were busy enough driving all over CA without me having to concern myself with the latest Facebook updates.
The only time it was a little frustrating was when we were driving up the coast and had difficulty finding information about road closures near Big Sur. I couldn’t get any information by phone. Once you get to a certain point on U.S. 1, there are few, if any, roads cut across to Hwy. 101. Fortunately, when we approached San Simeon, there were signs on the side of the road telling us that the road was closed about 47 miles ahead.
That’s when our trip became more about the journey than the destination. And I think that’s what I’d been wanting all along by deliberately staying off the internet and email. I wanted that feeling of not quite knowing what was going to happen next and just going with what the day brings.
