“Grin like a dog and wander aimlessly.”
Sometimes I just want to do nothing. I wake up, figure out what day it is, think about what I have to do and then breathe a sign of relief when I realize I don’t have to do a thing. I use days like today to ride around and see the Cape as if I were a tourist. Other times I shop in some little out-of-the-way place where I can find neat, unusual things as if my house has room for any more.
It is a back and forth sort of day. The sun peeks out of the clouds then hides again. It is only 63° and will be like this for the next few days. Wednesday is supposed to be summer hot. I predict a deck day.
The neighborhood was noisy this morning with the sounds of little kids so I was awakened at 8:00 which wouldn’t be too bad except I went to bed at 2. It was just one of those nights when I wasn’t tired. I watched the cooking channel.
Once in a while I get this urge to travel and I just want to go. The destination is unimportant. It is the going which I crave. It is needing to tend to my affliction, my wanderlust. My passport is always up-to-date just in case. My car is gassed. It would take all of five minutes to pack my bag: toothbrush, underwear, a couple of shirts and a clean pair of slacks would do me fine. I know I have a trip in August, but that feels like a long time away.
If I were exiled to an island and could bring whatever I needed to sustain me, I’d have books and music, expecting, of course, that the food would be provided as well as an unlimited supply of batteries (it is, after all, my daydream). A beach chair by the ocean would a wonderful place to while away my exile. Maybe I’d live in a thatched treehouse, a Tarzan sort of place where he and Jane had set up housekeeping. I’d swim by the reef, and I’d do a little a little fishing from my chair. My rod would be stuck in the sand so I’d have little to do but pull in dinner. Interesting debris would wash up on the shore, and I’d decorate my thatched house with the oddities brought by the tides.
I know that wouldn’t happen, especially the batteries, so I’ll settle for my deck, an oasis, an island, in the back of my house. Right now the sun is shining, the birds are at the feeders, and my deck looks like the perfect place to spend a little time with my book and my music.
I think my life is wonderful and I even like the feeling of wanderlust. It keeps me from ever being bored.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: books and music, cloudy, Dennis Massachusetts, deserted island, Massachusetts Route 6A, road trip, travel, wanderlust
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June 16, 2012 at 11:46 am
There should always be a trip booked to feed the Wanderlust monster. We are inside forty days until Delta takes us to the Olympics. In a couple of weeks we go up to Stratford for the theatre season.
Someone once told me that I can plan the fun out of anything …no im6, it wasn’t Nicci, who is currently enjoying Art Basel
June 16, 2012 at 11:54 am
My Dear Hedley,
I pack the night before I leave though in my head I sort of have planned what I need. I seldom make reservations and hope to happen on a place to stay.
I seldom plan more than having enough underwear and a general itinerary of getting from Point A to my Final Destination, but an itinerary subject to change if I find something neat and unexpected.
June 16, 2012 at 12:00 pm
I pack about an hour before travel and it’s pretty random. I am usually more preoccupied with empty space to bring home those essential items…hello Tesco 🙂
June 16, 2012 at 12:14 pm
MDH,
Last summer I had to buy a sports bag to carry all the Bolga baskets I bought home with me. I will pack that same bag for this trip as I expect to be shopping. I have a visa for Burkina Faso and will go to Ougadougou for a few days. I used to go there for weekends when I lived in Ghana. It was closer to go there than Accra, the capital of Ghana.
June 16, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Did you have to paddle down any croc infested rivers or anything ?
June 16, 2012 at 12:46 pm
MDH,
Not a one though I did take a picture of me holding a croc’s tail at Paga and the sacred croc pond.
June 16, 2012 at 12:30 pm
With every airline, except Southwest Airlines, charging for checked bags, I pack lightly and carry my bag onto the airplane when I travel for pleasure. If it’s a business trip I check my bag and expense the fee to the company. When I travel I pack within an hour of leaving the house since I have already packed everything it in my mind.
I rarely buy anything on a trip to bring home. In our global economy everything can be bought here in the States or on line cheaper and I don’t get a hernia dragging the stuff home. I made an exception in China because I could negotiate with the merchants. Here in Dallas I can buy the same stuff in several super stores in the asian neighborhoods.
If you wish for that island experience, try an all inclusive resort vacation in Mexico or the Caribbean. You arrive at the beach front property, unpack your cloths and spend the next week sitting on the beach, or poolside, drinking tropical drinks and having all your meals, snacks, entertainment and booze provided. It is like a cruise with the drinks included in the price that stays in one location without sea sickness 🙂
I have been to several including one of those resorts in Puerto Vallarta Mexico twice. The only time I left the resort property was to go to and from the airport. One of the many tour guides in the hotel lobby tried to sell me a city tour that he said would show me the real Mexico. I told him that if I want to see the real Mexico I would just go to Jefferson Blvd. in Dallas. He then wanted to know if I know his cousin who lived near Jefferson Blvd. The Mexican consulate set up a voter registration office on Jefferson Blvd. during the last Mexican Presidential election to register all the legal and illegal residents who are absentee voters.
Another hot and dry day.
June 16, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Bob,
As I’ll be gone for a month, packing lightly won’t do, but my bag is free so I’ll not worry.
The baskets I bought for about 4 or 5 dollars in Bolga are available here but are $30+ so they are well worth bringing home. I’m going to look for different shapes than the ones I bought last summer. The bead jewelry is also available here but double or triple the Ghanaian price where bargaining is expected. African goods just aren’t as common here though you can buy them on-line for big money.
I am not really an all-inclusive type, and as I live near the ocean, a vacation at a beach isn’t all that inviting to me. I really like odd places for travel, the off the beaten path places. Even when I was in Portugal, I went north while almost all the other travelers went south. I didn’t meet a single America on that trip and I always think that’s a success.
I haven’t been to Mexico though I have been to Panama and Costa Rica and spent 7 weeks traveling through South America one summer. I think I’ll have to look around to closer spots after this trip as my trip money is dwindling.
Cool here.
June 16, 2012 at 2:41 pm
That’s right, Cape Cod is a beach 🙂 I mean a tropical beach.
June 16, 2012 at 12:57 pm
It’s much the same weather up here today, with the occasional shower. I started the day by dropping the glass pitcher to my coffee machine on the counter and then down on the floor. I thought I only had picked up one splinter with my foot but now I realized that it was two. I’ve been digging in my foot with a razor knife to get it out, I’m not sure I was successful though 🙂
I always pack weeks before a trip and when I’ve done that I don’t have to think about it any more. The day I go I just pick up my bag and go.
I do buy things when travelling. I know as Bob says we can buy it cheaper online or even here at home but who cares:-) It’s a memory of the place I went to and it just wouldn’t be that if I only was thinking cheap and bought it when I came home. Memories are more valuable than some dollars to me.
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 16, 2012 at 1:06 pm
Christer,
I hate it when glass breaks, and it usually does on my tile floor, but it gets cleaned up right away because of the dog and cats. I don’t want their paws filled with glass. I hate digging splinters or glass pieces out of me.
I’ll pack in the morning as I don’t have to leave here until 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon.
I too always buy stuff when I travel. I leave room in my suitcase for whatever I’ve bought. Last year I needed a new bag for all the baskets. This year I hope to find some pottery, but I can’t yet figure out how to get that home. Maybe I can find a place that ships. I bring just because gifts home too and love to give different sorts of stuff to my friends when we see each other after my trip. Last year I also bought Christmas presents and probably will do so again.
Enjoy your evening!
June 16, 2012 at 3:11 pm
We’ve had hard rain every night for a week. My grass is knee high. But I love your thoughts of traveling. I have dreams where when the mood hits me I would just pick up and leave. I’d love to spend a week in Galveston during Fall but that again would take planning and I think planning is what ties you too tight to a schedule. I want to parachute in and just explore. Good post today Kat.
June 16, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Z&Me,
That was our weather last week: rain every day. My lawn got cut this afternoon while I was out doing a bit of shopping.
If I didn’t have the dog, I’d go when the mood hits me. I know the cats would get fed and loved while I was gone, but you can’t just pick up with a dog as a house companion.
I planned my trip to Ghana last summer, but I’m winging it this time. During my PC travels, we just went and hoped for the best, and in the old days of backpacking, we had countries in mind but never how to get there or where to stay.
I hate to plan too much. I like spontaniety as you never know what you might find more interesting than what you planned. I have a beginning and final destination but no in between.
Thanks, Z&Me!
June 16, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Bob,
I’m a winter beach person. I seldom go in the summer when the whole world is there. My two sisters are tropical beach people but that gene missed me. I’d rather do stuff; they’d rather sit and sun.
June 17, 2012 at 6:26 am
If you want to be on an island, mine is only about 11 hours away by car.
June 17, 2012 at 10:02 am
Cuidado,
It is on my list of places I’d like to see!!