Commentary By Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



Don’t you just love family vacations?

I recently had the privilege of going on our first family vacation since Raygan’s arrival. We went with another couple.

Since maternity leave left me with no time off, we are having to take little weekend vacations here and there.

We snuck off to the Smokey Mountains this past week and had a blast.

Our friends, Joe, Wendi and Logan had a good time, too. I love to just walk the streets in the mountains and watch people and window shop.

There was nothing that we had to buy, so it made the trip that much more nice. We would get up in the morning and say, “So, what do you guys want to do today?”

We are all just so laid back that it doesn’t matter what we do, we’re gonna have fun.

There were a couple of times that the guys just wanted to sleep and Wendi and I would go down to the pool with the kids. I think we spent a total of $200 the whole time we were gone. We didn’t care about spending any money, we just wanted to relax.

It’s sad when a person comes home from vacation and needs a vacation from their vacation because they stay so busy they’re exhausted.

We sure didn’t do that this time. We spent a lot of our time at the hotel pool and laying in the bed. Both of these activities are free.

My husband Todd and I have figured out how to take tons of weekend getaways for a minimal amount of money.

We just sit through those long, boring timeshare schpeels and they give us free nights. This doesn’t sound like fun to anyone in their right mind, but it has proven to work for us.

You see, we understand that in a timeshare you have to be able to take time off of work to go on vacation. This may or may not happen for us from year to year depending on the circumstances.

The second thing that we realize is that timeshares cost a heap of money. Those two things are what we have the least of in this world: time and money. So we just remind ourselves of this little fact before we go, and then it’s smooth sailing.

Of course in a timeshare presentation you always start off with the really nice lady or gentleman who have just started and their kids won’t eat if they don’t make this sale.

Don’t buy into this. We’ve done about four of these and almost every one starts out this way. After the nice person, they get their “supervisor” to talk to you. The supervisor is more pushy. You may think you’ve got it whipped when they finally give up on you until the next guy comes.

When you get to the third sales person, they can be down right mean. That’s OK, just remember that you are getting a free weekend vacation and don’t let them get to you.

After that, they begrudgingly give you the free weekend vacation that you have only worked two hours for. Doesn’t that sound like a winner? Here’s the catch though — most people give in to them. That would turn out to be a rather expensive “free” weekend.

So, if you don’t have a strong personality, I would not suggest doing this!

Well, Todd and I successfully made it through another one of these this week and we enjoyed the benefits of it. I love vacations and I love spending time with my family and friends. There is nothing like the memories that come from your vacations. Even the bad memories, like Joe getting sick the last night and barfing all night long.

See, I made a new memory with friends. What could be nicer than that?