Today’s guest post comes from Barbara in Robbinsdale.

On a recent trip to the southeast and beyond, Michael and I had great fun visiting relatives and seeing sights. There was a carefully laid–out itinerary, with appointments to be had and expectations to be met all along the way.

But our fondest memories are of an unscheduled day and a half between destinations.

We were commitment free – the only task was to travel at a leisurely pace from Peachtree City, Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina. Since Savannah was in our path we made our way there, and spent a delightful afternoon walking among some old buildings and Colonial Park Cemetery.

Among our casual discoveries –

A riverfront dinner at One Eyed Lizzy’s and a relatively luxurious night at “Inn @ Mulberry Grove.”

The next day we only had to make a 2 ½ hour freeway trip. Rather than hurry along, we snagged a map at a visitor center and decided on a detour to Hilton Head Island. We had no reservations for any of the pricey resorts, but did manage to find a lovely public beach with amenities for retirees like a boardwalk and real rest rooms.

On the road to and from the beach, we drove for several miles past strip malls – but not your cement-and-asphalt-on-the-prairie ugliness to which much of North America is accustomed. These rows of shops are nestled in among long tall pines and live oaks draped with Spanish moss. They look like someone just threw out some strip-mall seeds, and the shops sprouted there amongst the trees. They beckoned. We stopped.

Not everything was small and charming. We found a Barnes & Noble, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay full price ($16.95 for the paperback!) for THE Savannah book everyone had been recommending, Midnight in the Gardens of Good and Evil. So we wished for a thrift shop, and a St. Vincent’s showed itself around the next bend – bought the hardcover Midnight… for two bucks. An inexpensive meal at a modest Dunkin’ Donuts capped a satisfying ramble.

It felt a bit like magic by then, and it was. There is nothing like free time. Even if you are retired, as we are, you fill up your days with commitments of one kind or another. Sometimes it takes getting out of Dodge to find that unplanned, open, loose time. Next trip I’m going to insert into the itinerary: one day to go “off road”, a day committed to no one, to do whatever presents itself.

When have you had a satisfying span of loose time?

Today’s guest post comes from Jim in Clark’s Grove..

My first trip as an overseas agricultural volunteer for ACDI/VOCA was the one that I took to bring information on sustainable farming to Bulgaria.

This was a great adventure, giving an interesting perspective on a part of the world that was new to me. Before making this trip, I didn’t even know where to find Bulgaria on a map. I did know that it had recently emerged from behind the Iron Curtain in 1994 when I visited. I was not an experienced international traveler, but I was willing to give it a try. There were some hardships encountered during this trip due to the somewhat difficult traveling conditions. The many fascinating experiences I had there learning about the country and its people more than made up for the travel problems.

Most of my time on this trip was spent in Butan, a small village in Northeast Bulgaria. I arrived there late at night with my Bulgarian host and my translator. A welcoming committee of people from the town was pleased to learn that I was willing to drink rakia with them. Rakia is a drink similar to brandy that is very strong and has a unique flavor that I learned to appreciate. There were no hotels in the town, but there was room for me to stay in a home.

I enjoyed touring Butan, which has cobblestone streets and homes surrounded by walls. The streets are lined with fruit and nut trees and through some openings in the walls you can see chickens and other livestock that are kept in back yards. Grapes grow everywhere. I drank homemade wine at several homes that I visited. The mayor invited me to his home where he offered me three kinds of wine made from grapes that he grew. One family was very proud of the water buffalo that they owned. Most of the homes I saw had outdoor toilets and some had cars. Both donkey carts and trucks were used as commercial vehicles.

I could go on for a long time about my experiences in Butan. Instead of doing that, I want to tell about how I was helped out of a difficult situation.

Stancho, who hosted my trip, turned out to not be completely reliable. He became dissatisfied with my translator, she decided to leave, and Stancho left to get another translator. No one in the village could translate for me. I was on my own for a couple of days among people who didn’t speak my language.

I decided that I would be okay on my own because I thought I could trust the people where I was staying. That turned out to be true. They cooked a special meal for me and invited other villagers to the meal. Guests at the meal included a man who I learned later had been separated from his group on a trip to Cuba. For a number of days he had to find his way without being able to talk anyone, just as I was doing.

I was treated well by everyone I meet in Butan and they all knew that Stancho had his shortcomings.  I learned latter that the people at ACDI/VOCA were not sure that Stancho would make a good host and had some reservations about using him in this capacity. However, the change in translators, because Stancho drove away the first one, turned out to be a stroke of good luck for me.   The second translator did a very good job and is now a friend of mine who invited me back to Bulgaria to visit him. 

Talk about your experiences with giving or receiving help from people you don’t know.