I had planned on writing a post about my lust to wander over the winter. However, as I was planning my format I looked up the definition of wanderlust. Of course I knew what the word meant. It is one of my favorite words. I was looking up the proper definition. In my Internet search I noticed a movie coming out by the same name. So if I wait until after the movie comes out, I feel it will cheapen one of my favorite words, and I will be the copy cat. Also, this is going to a long post that deals with thoughts and memories from my past so I am going to break it up into three parts. So here I go...
If I had one word to describe myself, I would choose the word wanderlust. I absolutely love to travel. I want to see it all! When I was a five year old kid I had my baby blanket on the floor in a corner of my living room. I left the blanket on the floor most of the time. I was past sleeping with it. On my baby blanket I had a globe, a puzzle map of the United States. I also had an old geography book with lists of the longest rivers, tallest mountains, largest lakes. Even at five years old, I was reading like the worlds biggest nerd. I memorized these things as a little kid. I used to time myself on how fast I could put the state puzzle pieces in the right position ( the pieces were in the shape of the states not regular puzzle shapes). While everyone else was playing with Star Wars figurines I was reading the 50 States book made for a second grade reading level. The point of this long stroll down memory is even as a little guy, I wanted to know about and see places I was reading about.
By eleven years old, I was planning vacations that I could never go on. Vacations that my parents wouldn't have done even if we were rich. I read an article in Field and Stream about shad fishing in the Delaware River. This was before internet and information was not at your fingertips. I wrote a letter with a bunch of questions to Pennsylvania Fish and Game. It was filled with questions with spaces in between for answers to be hand written. They were kind enough to answer all my questions. I then tried to figure out distance, gas costs and motel costs for that area. I planned the trip for the following spring. Keep in mind I'm 11 years old doing all this. My parents were not taking me on a trip to fish for shad six hours away. So besides planning my vaca for the following spring I planned on taking it again when I would be eighteen. I assumed I'd have my drivers license and be out of school. So I figured out the dates weekends would be in May 1993. Of course May 1993 came and went I did not make it to northeastern PA, but that desire to travel and see it all was there even at that age.
When I got older out of school and having a full time job, I went on vacations. They were usually places in the northeast. Just because these places were close to home and within a days a drive, does not mean they were not awesome. When I first started working for Norton Honey Dew, Laurie and I went to Gettysburg. There is no place like it. You can feel the ghosts and hear the roar of cannons echoing from 150 years ago.
When money was tight I took trips to New Hampshire. We would hike 4000 foot mountains. We always had a good time hiking and looking for moose. One year we went to Scranton,PA to visit a friend. A couple years ago, DJ and I went to Baxter State Park in Maine. The place is absolutely loaded with wildlife and beautiful scenery.
Also I love Washington, DC. It baffles me that I love it so much. I despise cities, yet there is so much to see in DC, that I can deal with all of those people. I've been there three times. I would go back again tomorrow.
I find myself attracted to movies that involve places I want to visit. I spent an entire winter Netflixing movies from exotic locations. Classics like Mutiny on the Bounty, Key Largo and To have and have not were watched that winter. Of course I feel I am one with the charecters in 127 Hours and Into the Wild. I love movies about what the west was like such as Dances with Wolves and Jeremiah Johnson. When I watch a movie with amazing scenery or a beautiful location, It reminds me of places I want to go and also places I've been. The way a lottery ticket helps you dream, I get the same feeling watching a movie about the southwest during a January snowstorm.
All the while, during winter I would buy used books from Amazon. I would buy books about the west. I bought book about hiking in national parks. I bought books fishing in national forests. Books about state parks, scenic drives and streams to paddle all grace my bookshelves. I bought mapbooks of Montana, California, Colorado and a couple other states. There is a book series of watchable wildlife. You can buy a book of each state. Each book shows the best places in the state to see wildlife. I bought them every time I found a cheap used one. I hardly watch any tv ( except Netflix and Thursday night comedies). I'd spend hours after work planning hiking routes through mountain passes. I'd figure out what mountain lakes I want to fish in Wyoming and Montana. I didn't know when I would get to see Yellowstone or the southwest but I always knew I would. There was no " if " only when... "
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