On further reflection, I realize that I'm obsessing about planning for my road trip because I've passed the age of total spontaneity on something when I've never done anything like it before. However, with other trips, I plan my flights pretty carefully, then I read everything I can about my destination and go from there.

When my husband and I were in Venice in March, I read all I could -- guide books, literature, as well as a bunch of books from Donna Leon's mystery series about Venice. When we got to Venice we purchased vaporetto and museum passes (cheaper separately than purchasing the all-in-one pass), but somehow never got around to getting a map. Needless to say, some of our best memories are of wandering around lost. We did miss seeing a few of the things we had on our "A" list, but those are sights that are so well-know known that we can enjoy them through books or pictures. The sights we found while we were lost are definitely once in a life time because we most certainly could not find them again!

Landra in upstate New York