Wandering Mind Written Down

I really don’t know why it took so long to realize it but there is no doubt in the world that I love to travel.   No…travel is too broad a word…I love to drive, I love to take road trips.  Proof comes in the form of the 195, 000 + miles that I’ve put into my 2007 Pontiac G6 in under the 7 years of ownership.

Maybe the affinity for driving is coming with age…maybe this is my midlife crisis.   I’m only 37…but nowadays, who knows?

I’m writing this faux journalistic entry as I watch my daughter take part in her first horse back riding competition.   I wonder if this is the start of her own adventures.   I also wonder how influential my way of being will be on her…and will my sense of adventure converge with her own.  Guess I’ll let her tell me whenever she figures it out.

I’m not old enough to say that father time has an edge on me or young enough to say that I have an edge over him.  What I do know is that we have two things guaranteed in life…birth and death.  Anything we do in between is based on our choices…our sense of adventure. 

And so, within the past couple of years,  I’ve taken the enjoyment of driving the direct round trip route from Houston, TX to Los Angeles, CA…which I’ve done on multiple occasions…and have allowed my curiosity to take over.  

I’ve had the fortune of having traveled to Los Angeles by road with, the daughter, the past three years (2011, 2012 and 2013) and it wasn’t until year two that we decided to venture outside of our common path.  As anyone who’s traveled from Texas to California knows, you either drive on I-10 or I-40 and cross Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.  Heading back home, we opted to go from California to Nevada then Utah…where we spent the night.  On the second day we left Utah and visited Colorado where we spent night #2 before heading back to Houston the next afternoon.

Honestly, it’s not anything special so I’ll just give you the abbreviated version of our trip to Los Angeles during year three…we spent the day and night in Flagstaff, AZ.

Again…nothing too impressive.   What this did though was increase my curiosity of what other places I could visit in this country.  

I was also fortunate that between summer road trips 2 and 3 I was sent to Kansas City, KS for work related purposes which allowed me to experience a new culture and opened the door to new areas to explore.  

While in Kansas I managed to drive through and visit certain sites within the neighboring states of Nebraska (just skimmed the east side of the state), Iowa (visited the crash site of Buddy Holly/Ritchie Valens/Big Bopper), Minnesota (Mall of America/downtown Minneapolis) and Missouri (Silver Dollar City in Branson).

By the end of the 2013 summer the evolution and merger of road trips and adventures was complete…after that, I wanted to drive and create an adventure somewhere. The type of adventure didn’t seem to really matter.

The second half of 2013 gave me those “fuck it” opportunities when I took five road trips on a whim.   FYI…they were four separate destinations performed on five trips. They included an unforgettable Labor Day trip (which can and should be told on its own entry), two trips to Orlando within a week of each other, a trip to Jefferson, TX (ghost hunting adventure…kinda) and a trip to Ouachita National Forest which crosses through the Arkansas/Oklahoma border.

While the first half of 2014 has primarily been all about Texas…from visiting the Hill Country to exploring the forests of the state’s northeast region…I know that the second half of this year (and beyond) will provide even more greater opportunities for adventures.

I hope I’ll be able to include more of those “ghost hunting” adventures during any of the planned or spontaneous trips I decide to take.   I’m just trying to raise my personal bar and surpass my own expectations…guess that’s the difference between dreaming of doing something and actually doing it.

Stay tuned for more…

Alberto M.