Yes to travel spontaneity

Yes, I can say that I’ve seen better movies than “Yes Man.”

It may be a ho-hum movie, but what lasts for me is a moment of spontaneity: at one point Jim Carrey’s character arrives at the airport, steps up to the ticket desk, and asks for the next flight out of town. Will it be Tuvalu or will it be Nebraska? Hold onto your britches—he ends up in Lincoln, Nebraska. After an initial shock of disappointment, he runs with it and finds himself perusing an old phone museum, wandering backcountry roads, and cheering for the home team at a football game—proving that anywhere can be interesting, if you have the same sense of wonder that you’d bring to Tuvalu.

Abha has blogged a bit about the topic. And it reminds me of Lonely Planet’s Guide to Experimental Travel a few years back (which includes instructions for Trip Poker: four people role the dice—the winner chooses the destination, and the loser pays for the trip).

I can’t say that I’ve made any spontaneous bookings like that—just arrived at the airport and picked my destination on a whim—but I’m thinking that it has to go on my rolling New Year’s Resolution list, for sometime in my lifetime. But I’m wondering: has anybody here done that? Or maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment choice on your Eurail Pass? Where did your spin of trip roulette take you?