Nov 30, 2015 3 min read

I have long wanted to just get into the car and pick a direction; to drive until an attraction caught my eye. I have always thought it would be awesome to only stop when we became tired, and to have no time constraints because we have nothing planned. Though I’m not an overly spontaneous person, this unplanned plan seems like the epitome of adventure to me.

The only problem? I married a planner. My husband likes to know the weather for a week in advance. He likes to know what breakfast will be before he goes to bed. He has absolutely no wanderlust for unchartered waters (or for any vacation pertaining to water, for that matter.)

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to – kind of – get that type of vacation the weekend after Thanksgiving. It was the best of both worlds, as he was able to know the details as he prefers, while I knew next to nothing, as I had hoped. I was simply told what days to take off from work, what types of clothes I needed to pack, and what time I needed to be ready to go. Amazing.

We traveled west for a while, stopping a couple of times to do some shopping at both a mega-farm store and a mega-craft store. Then, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch before continuing to drive, eventually ending up in Columbus, Ohio. There, to my surprise but not to his, we had hotel reservations.

That evening, we did the young, hip, cool thing and went out to see what Columbus had to offer. Totally kidding. We ordered a pizza, crawled into bed early and watched a documentary on elephants. Ahh, just the adventure I was looking for.

The next day, we attended a Ford-only car swap in search of parts for a project car he is building. Held at the Ohio Expo Center, home of the Ohio State Fair, there were four humongous barns filled with more than 1,100 vendors of car and truck parts. I pushed a dolly around the barn for hours while my husband rifled through tables and bins of rusty metal. Occasionally, he would find something he needed and then make a deal (or not) with the seller.

Often, the sellers would comment about me not enjoying myself, but it wasn’t true. I may not be totally excited by shock tower covers and front calipers, but the time spent with my husband was priceless. We laughed and talked, told jokes and shared many moments unrushed by opposing schedules. And, I actually found a couple of things he needed that he might have missed without me.

The next day, we went across the center’s grounds to where several hundred antique dealers were gathered for a similar event. We took turns pushing the dolly around as we both looked through aisles and aisles of primitives, glassware, toys, clothing and more. We found a couple of pieces there, as well.

After two days, we headed home, hearts and vehicle full.

It was just the adventure I was looking for.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.