Vacation or No Vacation?

Memphis--
I am writing from a moderate-priced hotel in the east end of the city. It was a small but tough decision as to whether or not on vacation given the economic environment and gas prices.
When the air conditioning broke and it cost almost $180 to fix, again, it was a tough decision whether or not to go on vacation? But we decided to go since a friend who lives five hours in another direction is going to meet us here tonight.

It is now on the backside of the short vacation. We went to Graceland and took the medium price tour—which means we saw his grave, got to go into his plane and see his cars. I saw some of the weirdest things to be branded with Elvis's image and name. We went to Beale Street and ate at B.B. King's restaurant (strawberry preserves on Fried Green Tomatoes was quite interesting). We went to the Sun Records Studio. We had some BBQ (barbecue/barbeque) at Corky's. We head home tomorrow.

We got a picture of all of us in front of Graceland. We got a picture of the kids by Elvis's music note on Beale Street. (Hollywood has stars—Beale Street has musical notes in the pavement.)
While this is not meant to be a commercial for Memphis, the point is we did stuff as a family. My wife and I took our kids to see things that we value and wanted to see.

We made memories in a worthy place for memories. At the end of the day it was cool to have a conversation with my five-year-old son about our favorite parts of the Graceland tour.

Well, like many people's vacation, this was one where we are putting balances on credit cards. I have a plan for paying them off. The assumptions of the plan are: 1.) my job is secure, 2.) the central air conditioning continues to work, 3. nothing else major breaks down and 4.) the cars don't break down.

Number four is looking shaky. The 8-year-old car that we have is quite dependable but the computer said to check tire pressures. Well I did this morning and took them all up to 41 PPS again this afternoon the same light came on as we headed back to hotel. I checked them again and they are back down to 35 PPS

I will check tire pressures again tomorrow and add air—worst case scenario means new tires—something I am not thrilled about. But if you own a car, you will need to maintain it.

Am I glad we have taken this mini vacation. Yes. There is a time where one must take risks.

There are some moments in times that will not come back. My kids are only going to be young once. While I would like to take them exotic places and have the best accommodations, I am like most people—I work for a living and we can afford what we can afford.

I think that at the end of this, life is a balance between risk and no risk. The miserly side of me said that this was a foolish thing, but then the other side of me said to seize the day. The conversation with my five-year-old last night about Graceland was worth it even in the midst of unsure economic times and high gas prices.

Vacation or no vacation? It was tough for me. It may be tough for you. It is okay if your better side says to do a "stay-cation." If you stay, just make some memories.