As a freelancer, guaranteed summer vacations are something I left behind when I struck out on my own. Not that my family and I don’t enjoy some time away. But it takes careful planning and a willingness to turn down potential income for a week or ten days.

Any of you freelancers out there have a system for vacation time? Do you combine your vacation with an out-of-town assignment or just chuck it all and hope the phone doesn’t ring that week?

I’ve done a little of both. When I hosted This is the PGA Tour on Fox Sports Net (1996-2002), I brought my wife along to Montreal and met my family in Vancouver. When I hosted the World Putting Championship on ESPN in Orlando in 1996, I hauled the family down to Walt Disney World. It can be done.

But suppose you want to just get away with the guys for a few days of activities that don’t include firearms or dead animals. A golf vacation is nice, but better yet is the vacation I was paid to take when TBS assigned me to a baseball vacation in 1988.

The ballparks we visited are all gone now, but thanks to video, the memories linger on.