Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Hey hi hello
If you've found this page, chances are you've probably already seen me on some other site or social media platform. Cool! This is just a blog I'm keeping as I go. Please check out the other pages at the top (wish list especially -- sorrynotsorry), and feel free to get a hold of me if you have any activity ideas, want to offer me a place to sleep, or will buy me groceries or gas or something. :P Or just follow along!
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Processing
I crammed a lot of living into a few months. I'm back home now, and "reality" will hit soon enough. There is a lot to process, a lot to think about from what just happened, and a lot to think about that is going to happen soon.
It's like I downloaded a bunch of information over the last 2+ months -- and now I need to figure out what to do with it. It's a lot to take in.
11,500ish miles. Over 20 National Parks and Monuments. Many other parks and recreation areas. Sleeping in the homes of 10+ strangers. Meeting lots of people I never would have met. Engaging in conversations -- some really good ones, too -- with complete strangers. No major incidents or mishaps. Sleeping in my car a lot. Mountains and deserts and wildlife I've never seen before. Places I definitely want to go back to. Places where ... once was enough. A lot of really good, and a little bit of bad. But a lot of living. And that's what I wanted.
I surprised my family yesterday, and we spent most of the day together. I walked my dog. We went to the park. We went and got groceries, of all things, and we had dinner together.
For the next several days, though, I'll have the house to myself -- which I think has the potential to be both really good and kind of bad. I'm used to being alone -- really alone -- so that's not bad, it's just that with so much to think about I don't want my mind to race straight to the potential bad things.
But, in an effort to stay positive, here is a list of reasons I'm excited to be home:
- Time with my family
- Time with any people
- Time with my dog. Walks, park visits.
- Archery
- Archery deer season
- Hockey season
- Skating
- Getting back into a normal training schedule where I actually make, you know, progress, instead of just hitting the same numbers over and over again
- Eating normally
- By eating normally I of course mean it's bulking season. Time to try my hardest to get fat.
- Fall. I love fall.
- Looking for opportunities to apply lessons learned going forward, and make my life better
- Enjoying this small town, and embracing that it is a small town and I'm a "small town boy"
- Trying to meet new people in this small town
- Try to find new places in Northern Michigan
- More family and dog and friend time
Of course there is a corresponding list of things I'm not looking forward to -- but I'll keep that one to myself for now.
It's like I downloaded a bunch of information over the last 2+ months -- and now I need to figure out what to do with it. It's a lot to take in.
11,500ish miles. Over 20 National Parks and Monuments. Many other parks and recreation areas. Sleeping in the homes of 10+ strangers. Meeting lots of people I never would have met. Engaging in conversations -- some really good ones, too -- with complete strangers. No major incidents or mishaps. Sleeping in my car a lot. Mountains and deserts and wildlife I've never seen before. Places I definitely want to go back to. Places where ... once was enough. A lot of really good, and a little bit of bad. But a lot of living. And that's what I wanted.
I surprised my family yesterday, and we spent most of the day together. I walked my dog. We went to the park. We went and got groceries, of all things, and we had dinner together.
For the next several days, though, I'll have the house to myself -- which I think has the potential to be both really good and kind of bad. I'm used to being alone -- really alone -- so that's not bad, it's just that with so much to think about I don't want my mind to race straight to the potential bad things.
But, in an effort to stay positive, here is a list of reasons I'm excited to be home:
- Time with my family
- Time with any people
- Time with my dog. Walks, park visits.
- Archery
- Archery deer season
- Hockey season
- Skating
- Getting back into a normal training schedule where I actually make, you know, progress, instead of just hitting the same numbers over and over again
- Eating normally
- By eating normally I of course mean it's bulking season. Time to try my hardest to get fat.
- Fall. I love fall.
- Looking for opportunities to apply lessons learned going forward, and make my life better
- Enjoying this small town, and embracing that it is a small town and I'm a "small town boy"
- Trying to meet new people in this small town
- Try to find new places in Northern Michigan
- More family and dog and friend time
Of course there is a corresponding list of things I'm not looking forward to -- but I'll keep that one to myself for now.
Monday, October 9, 2017
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Oh, also.... (Picture stuff)
I gave up on posting large batches of photos. Until I get home. I still have a lot of good ones that didn't get posted, but the process I was using to post them before is broken and doesn't work well, so I have decided just to wait until I'm back home to do it on my own time. I'll have to go through them all, which actually isn't a horrible process, and then figure out the best way to do it. So even after I'm back home I'll still be posting lots of pictures for a while. I don't think anyone (who is paying attention) will mind very much.
Basically it's just California and everything in between, but I might sift through the older ones too and find some better ones that didn't get posted before. Not sure if I'll mostly put them on the blog here, which honestly I get the impression most people are not looking at at all, or all on IG/Facebook.
Basically it's just California and everything in between, but I might sift through the older ones too and find some better ones that didn't get posted before. Not sure if I'll mostly put them on the blog here, which honestly I get the impression most people are not looking at at all, or all on IG/Facebook.
The Last Leg
I'm in St. Louis. I'll be sticking around tonight and at least part of tomorrow. I'm trying to figure out what to do next.
I could be home tomorrow, if I wanted.
At the beginning I had this idea that I wanted to go all the way to the northeast and explore that area some -- but I knew there was a high probability of both my desire and my money being low. The desire is half there. The money is indeed getting tight, but I could swing it. I could dip into my "extra" savings I didn't want to touch. I could beg for money.
My mental energy plummeted while I was in Southern California, but has since come back somewhat. I think the mental burden has lessened since "turning the corner," so to speak, by heading north and east again. I can think more clearly and formulate something resembling a plan again. Part of me wants to continue. But a lot of me wants to go home.
Some time while I was in Denver I started to think about doing an abbreviated half-trip to the northeast. Go around the eastern-most Great Lakes, go into Canada one more time, visit some friends in Detroit and maybe other areas of southern Michigan, then head north. That's basically the assumption I was going on for the last week or so.
But I don't know. I'm not sure what to do or where to stop along the way. I'm not sure I want to do it that badly. It might just be a better idea to wait and do a proper northeast trip another time.
The closer I get, and the longer stretches I drive (I basically drove all the way across Kansas stopping two-ish times), the more tempting it is to just put "Traverse City" in the GPS and make a day of it.
So I'll pass it by people and see what kind of input I get.
---
This is kind of what I was thinking....
Or there is a shortened version of this, where I go to Niagra Falls and only go around Lake Erie....
Or there is the extended version, taking me to Vermont and maybe Montreal and Ottawa.
---
I wanted to get all the way out to Nova Scotia, but I just don't see it happening. Slash don't really want to right now.
What sounded good a week ago honestly just doesn't right now. I'm tired of seeing/not even really seeing the cities. They're all just kind of stops right now, and I'm not really doing much exploring or enjoying.
As much as I'd like to see Niagra Falls, and to go to Canada one more time, I think if I do a proper, longer northeast trip another time I can do those and a lot more. And have the energy. And plan better. And they won't just be stops.
I kind of just want to go home. I know most comments will be "Go here! Go there! Go everywhere!" And yeah, it sounds fun. But I'm going to have to get some fairly compelling arguments.
---
EDIT:
OR, or, or....
Something totally different. I could go to the Porkies finally, which I've been wanting to do for years. I can get a quick UP trip in. And I can go home.
---
I think tomorrow I'm going to go to find a gym mid-day and wait on comments and mull all of this over before I decide to go anywhere. Hopefully I'll have some input, or just some time to think, and I'll make a decision I'm happy with by the middle of the afternoon.
Or I can always just go the most direct route....
Or I could take "backroads" or something to make it more scenic.
Either way, it's looking like I'm sleeping at a Walmart tonight.
I could be home tomorrow, if I wanted.
At the beginning I had this idea that I wanted to go all the way to the northeast and explore that area some -- but I knew there was a high probability of both my desire and my money being low. The desire is half there. The money is indeed getting tight, but I could swing it. I could dip into my "extra" savings I didn't want to touch. I could beg for money.
My mental energy plummeted while I was in Southern California, but has since come back somewhat. I think the mental burden has lessened since "turning the corner," so to speak, by heading north and east again. I can think more clearly and formulate something resembling a plan again. Part of me wants to continue. But a lot of me wants to go home.
Some time while I was in Denver I started to think about doing an abbreviated half-trip to the northeast. Go around the eastern-most Great Lakes, go into Canada one more time, visit some friends in Detroit and maybe other areas of southern Michigan, then head north. That's basically the assumption I was going on for the last week or so.
But I don't know. I'm not sure what to do or where to stop along the way. I'm not sure I want to do it that badly. It might just be a better idea to wait and do a proper northeast trip another time.
The closer I get, and the longer stretches I drive (I basically drove all the way across Kansas stopping two-ish times), the more tempting it is to just put "Traverse City" in the GPS and make a day of it.
So I'll pass it by people and see what kind of input I get.
---
This is kind of what I was thinking....
Or there is a shortened version of this, where I go to Niagra Falls and only go around Lake Erie....
Or there is the extended version, taking me to Vermont and maybe Montreal and Ottawa.
---
I wanted to get all the way out to Nova Scotia, but I just don't see it happening. Slash don't really want to right now.
What sounded good a week ago honestly just doesn't right now. I'm tired of seeing/not even really seeing the cities. They're all just kind of stops right now, and I'm not really doing much exploring or enjoying.
As much as I'd like to see Niagra Falls, and to go to Canada one more time, I think if I do a proper, longer northeast trip another time I can do those and a lot more. And have the energy. And plan better. And they won't just be stops.
I kind of just want to go home. I know most comments will be "Go here! Go there! Go everywhere!" And yeah, it sounds fun. But I'm going to have to get some fairly compelling arguments.
---
EDIT:
OR, or, or....
Something totally different. I could go to the Porkies finally, which I've been wanting to do for years. I can get a quick UP trip in. And I can go home.
---
I think tomorrow I'm going to go to find a gym mid-day and wait on comments and mull all of this over before I decide to go anywhere. Hopefully I'll have some input, or just some time to think, and I'll make a decision I'm happy with by the middle of the afternoon.
Or I can always just go the most direct route....
Or I could take "backroads" or something to make it more scenic.
Either way, it's looking like I'm sleeping at a Walmart tonight.
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Sunday, October 1, 2017
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