Always Have a Backup Plan

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Today, we would be leaving Maine behind as we were made our way down the coast to Salem, Massachusetts. Salem was a must see destination on Brandee’s list, so it’s one of the few places on our list that we planned to stay for multiple nights.

As luck would have it (or not have it), we didn’t have any place lined up to stay in the Salem area. I had sent out dozens of Couchsurfing requests and they had all been declined or gone unanswered. It looked like we may have to use the backup plan that we discussed before the trip started.

Sometimes things don’t go your way when traveling. Without having a host lined up this was one of those times. We did several different things to work through this obstacle in our travels. Enjoyed what we could, had a backup plan for what wasn’t working out, and took the immediate actions we could to get the results that we wanted.

Letting the Universal Law of Attraction Work

This is how the Law of Attraction works. Aligning intention, attention, expectation and action in the direction of the result you want to create. We went from not having a host lined up to having a fantastic travel day and staying with an awesome host for the next couple of nights.

Enjoying what was in front of us for the day:

You’ll find a plethora of small coastal town up and down the along the coast of Maine. There’s plenty of options to stop stretch your legs while playing tourist. We picked a couple along the way to enjoy.

We chose to take a quick spin through the town of Rockland. A friend of mine, originally from Maine, mentioned it was her favorite place to stop. We drove down to the shore and stopped at a candy store downtown. We bought some sweets for our next hosts, even though we didn’t have any lined up yet.

Our host the night before mentioned it was worthwhile to make a stop at the Maine State Prison Store in Thomaston, Maine. This is a must see if you are driving along the coast of Maine and it’s on your way. Almost everything in the store is made from wood and all products are made by the prison inmates.

These are high quality products at unbeatable prices. Not only that, but every product is stamped showing it’s made at the Maine State Prison. This means you get a unique souvenir that’s beautiful AND functional with a constant reminder of your visit to the state.

If you stop for some shopping and find something you like, know they can’t ship your items, so you’ll have to take your purchases with you.

The communities to stop and explore are numerous and there’s sure to be something for everyone as you drive along the US 1 Highway.

Taking the action we could immediately toward the outcome we wanted:

Finding a host on Couchsurfing is different than booking a place to stay on Airbnb. Couchsurfing is a more relaxed platform so it can be more challenging to find a host. Unlike Airbnb, Couchsurfing hosts are not penalized for ignoring a request or declining a request for no reason.

By mid-afternoon we still didn’t a host for our stay in the Boston area. Originally we asked hosts for a 3 night stay and we wanted to stay outside of Boston. Neither of us wanted to navigate the city or try to find parking for the car in Boston.

Ideally, we wanted to stay in Salem, but by this point in the day we were open to anywhere in the Boston area, in or out of the city. Our only concern was making sure we felt safe, wherever we stayed.

Personalized messages are always the key but especially so in moments like this. I sent out a couple of heartfelt messages to potential hosts and became flexible. I asked for 3 days in the message but also mentioned that we were open to just one night if that’s all that they were comfortable with or available for. And then we waited.

Always have a backup plan when traveling (and in life)

Before we even began the trip we considered that there may be places where we would be unable to find a host and talked about options.

We considered what it would look like to sleep in the car, aka car camping. We packed small air mattresses to make sleeping more comfortable assuming we had to exercise that as plan B.

We also considered that we may need to purchase a hotel room or Airbnb along the way. We planned enough in the budget so if we had to do that for a night or two we could still make it work. It would’ve strained the budget and we may have needed to cut out a few things we had planned to stick to the budget, but we knew that going in.

Either way, we were determined to meet our budget. We planned $75 per day but were trending at under $50 and hoped to keep it that way. (You can check out more on that here).

How it worked out:

Thankfully, we found a host, Diane, willing to take us in for 2 days. We found a second host for the final day in the Boston/Salem area. We made it to Diane’s house in time for dinner. She was kind enough to be prepared with plenty of food for all of us to enjoy a meal together. We spent the evening visiting and making our plans for the next few days. Be sure to check out the next post to find out what the can’t miss experiences are in the Salem area!