Some of you have requested that I not leave you behind when I go adventuring. Of course I’m not leaving you behind when I take off on my travels! I seem to have adopted the philosophy that an unblogged life is not worth living, so I will be keeping up with this web log as data plans, phone signals, and wifi spots permit. Besides, blogging is how I make sense of what I experience — so much of my life seems to take place beneath the surface, and writing is how I connect with my own subterranean world.
My first foray into a life of travel will probably have to be more planned than I intended. I will be heading north to visit a friend, and on the way I will camp out on at least one couch that I know of, so I’ll need to coordinate dates with both friends if nothing else. But it’s not just that. The truth is, I really know very little about the world. In some respects, being in a closely-connected and highly intellectual relationship was like living in a cloister or an ivory tower, and now I need to learn how to do things, and how to do things on my own.
Choices are endless in this electronic world. Motels. Couchsurfing sites. Car camping. Tents. Hammocks. Free campsite sites. Primitive campsites. Expensive campsites geared for RVs. I spend hours every day researching equipment, places to stay, sights to see and sites to experience. As someone who walks a lot, I know that around every bend, up ahead a few feet, and off to the side is an ever-changing feast of life. Multiply those few square miles by the vastness of the earth, and there is no way anyone can experience it all.
I know I don’t have to be some place pretty to succumb to awe, but I do have to be some place. I have to sleep somewhere. I have to be warm and dry and safe (or as safe as possible. I might be listening to the call of adventure, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be reckless). Hence all the research.
I learn best by trial and error. I’ll probably need to buy my camping gear at one of those places that let’s you try things out and exchange what doesn’t suit. It’s the only way I will know what I need. But still, I’ll have to have an idea of what to buy, and that takes research.
I’m getting an inkling that this first trip will be a case of dipping my toe into wanderlust — not the start of adventure, but the start of preparing for adventure. I can sense I am headed somewhere — maybe on that epic walk I can’t get out of my head — and all this is but prologue. So much to learn. So much to become — better, stronger, wiser.
At the beginning, I’ll probably be coming back here to this desert town quite frequently to recoup. Get my vehicle checked over by the mechanic. Take dance classes to rejuvenate my spirit. Replenish my supplies. And then, the world again.
And through it all, I’ll be taking you with me.
Should be a wondrous adventure!
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Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.” Connect with Pat on Google+. Like Pat on Facebook.
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April 13, 2015 at 6:07 pm
I can hardly wait! Have more fun than any ten people put together! Enjoy! Hugs, Millir
April 13, 2015 at 6:56 pm
Will be following you on your travels.
April 13, 2015 at 7:17 pm
And many of us will need to have our own adventures through yours. 😀
April 13, 2015 at 7:19 pm
Good luck! Can’t wait to hear all the stories.
April 13, 2015 at 8:46 pm
Oh, goody, we’re going, too! Sounds awesome!
April 13, 2015 at 9:34 pm
That last picture looks like a book cover. I hope you plan to write it someday…
April 14, 2015 at 9:25 am
Sounds fabulous – so excited! I’m also thinking that for our next move, we should try a new place instead of returning to places we’ve already lived. That’s much more of an adventure. At one time, we thought about living full-time in an RV just because we can’t choose to stay in one place. I love how you’re tiptoeing into wanderlust at first – great idea!
April 16, 2015 at 7:25 am
I was going to add a lot of meaningless stuff, but no. Just go, and enjoy it outrageously!
April 14, 2017 at 6:29 pm
[…] day a year or more ago. Today Facebook reminded me of a blog post I wrote two years ago called “Dipping My Toe Into Wanderlust,” which I found synchronous because today, once again, I dipped my toe into […]
January 23, 2018 at 2:53 pm
[…] Wanderlust, of course, means a strong desire to travel, and though I never had any particular inclination for traveling before Jeff died, now I feel the need (or anyway, a periodic need) to keep on the go. Maybe I’m running away. Maybe I’m running to, but all I know is that wanderlust fills a bit of the void in my soul that his death created. […]