There's bicycling along the canal towpath and in Tyler State Park. The town has four lovely swimming pools. There are underused tennis courts all over the place - put in before the tennis nuts turned to golf. We don't have to worry about blackout dates on bargain airfares. There's no debate about whether to upgrade our car rental to something bigger.
Home is perfect.
It was a big success, mainly because we set some firm ground rules. First, we treated it like an ordinary traveling vacation. We paid household bills ahead of time and mowed the lawn. We swore we would do no home-improvement projects, or any routine errands. We let the machine answer the phone.