Wanderlust Part 3 " The Aftermath "

    As we left off from Part 2 of what should be called at this point the story of my life, I was returning from a big trip out west last summer. When I got home I went through post vacation blues. I think a lot of people get them. It took me a long time to become my old self. It was at least a month. When I got home, I didn't want to do anything. I did not even want to go fishing, read that again- I did not want to go fishing. I don't know if it was because I felt nothing around here could compare with what I had done, or if it was just depression. I didn't need medicine or anything like that, but I had to battle to get out of the funk I was in.

You always hear people say that a trip like that, a trip to Europe or hiking the Appalachian Trail  will change you. You may not notice at first, but it does. For me it was the exact opposite, going on the trip only strengthened my conviction that I need to be tramping for the rest of my life. If given the choice, I would rather be homeless drifting across the country than have a stable marriage, house and a white picket fence. I know ladies, I am a catch. Unfortunately, cars run on gas and gas runs through gas station pipes only if you pay for it. So where does that leave me.

Well, I do what I am supposed to do. I work and pay bills like everyone else. However, if my life only consisted of coming home from work watch some tv, go to bed and do it again, I'd be absolutely miserable. I NEED to be out and about. I can fish for hours without getting a bite. I can hike endless mile through woods where one tree looks like the next. But at home, I can be bored  within 20 minutes of getting home from work. Hell, sometimes I'm bored within 20 minutes of getting home from five hours of fishing. Even I admit I have an issue.

So even though I can't drive across the country every summer, I have to find reasonable substitutions. Of course if you read my blog you know I fish all the time. I love fishing, it doesn't matter if its for trout, carp, or stripers. Fishing isn't just a way to kill time or relax. It is something I absolutely love.

If you've made it this far, keep going, your almost home. If you get anything out of this blog post it should be this: I saw a lot of America and New Hampshire can hold its own in scenery and outdoor fun with any place in the country.  The fact is the Grand Tetons and some Rocky Mountain ranges ARE more spectacular than the Whites, but that's about it.However the state has it all, it plays second fiddle to no state. You can hike deep in the woods. There is great fishing for both trout and smallmouth bass.  You can hike big mountains. Views are amazing. So whenever I have a free weekend I quench my wanderlust by going to New Hampshire. I actually think I appreciate I New Hampshire more now than before I went out west. Maybe I am just grateful I have such a great getaway spot three hours from home. Needless to say just knowing New Hampshire can be the next weekend away, makes for a much more relaxed Nick.

Did I just refer to myself in the third person in the last sentence? Oh well my blog. Deal with it ( or make fun of me, either way I don't really care). Lastly, I find myself reading more books about other peoples journeys. When I was young, I read a lot of books on sports. I read the history of the Celtics. Autobiographies of my favorite players were always on my want list. Now I rarely read books on sports now. I read books on hitchhiking, autobiographical accounts of hiking the Appalachian trail and of course " Into the Wild." I plan on writing a post about my favorite "drifting, tramping, traveling " books over the winter. My favorite writer is/was Edward Abbey who wrote a lot about the southwest. .

So there you have it. My life in a nutshell about why I would rather be homeless vagabond than a successful bussiness man ( although being a successful man would make it a lot easier to become a vagabond a lot sooner). Like I said earlier, I believe I was born this way ( no I did not just quote Lady Gaga).  My parents especially my mom gave me the love of fishing, nature, and animals. That said, I have taken the art of fishing way past the boundries my mom set. I probably catch more big fish a month than she did in her lifetime. My mom enjoyed fishing as a way to relax. I enjoy catching fish and took learning about them and there habits to levels my mom would have been bored to death with. By the time I was 25, I saw more moose than both of my parents combined. Not because I was luckier, but because I found out where they hang out. As opposed to my parents, who would just drive around hoping to find one.When I am intersted in something, I want to know  everything I can about it.I had an extremely stable two parent home. We never moved. We took a family vacation every year but never had conversations about seeing the world ( or more importantly all 54 U.S. national parks). So I firmly believe, no matter how I was brought up, if put in a different envirement, I'd still be the same. I would always want to know what is over the next hill.

Author's note:
If you read all three parts about Wanderlust, I want to thank you. I wrote this piece really just to put my thoughts in order. If you enjoyed reading about what is inside my head, I am glad. However, if you were bored and could care less, I understand that too. We all have our own problems, most people have problems a hell of a lot worse than whether or not I will ever get to Glacier National Park. I did not write it or expose my inner thoughts to you to whine or complain. I figured if you are a fan of my writing, I thought you might want to understand the rational of some of the decisions I make, or why am willing to fish in the rain or sleep outside below freezing.

The four vacation destinations left out of my ORIGINAL top 10 ( no paticular order)

1. Yosemite/ Giant Sequoias
2. Glacier National Park
3. St John, Virgin Islands
4. Olympic Peninsular, WA  ( OLympic National Park, Whales and Pugent Sound)

Also I'd like to get to Acadia National Park, Canyonlands National Park, the Everglades and Keys, and Kodiak Island

Thanks again for reading
Nick