Monday, March 22, 2010

My Getaways: The Great Outdoors

I don't consider myself to be an outdoorsy kind of person, and this was proven during my time in Portland. I was the guy who thought it'd be OK to camp-out with nothing but a bed sheet during an Oregon summer (trust me, it gets cold at night up there). I'm also the guy who saw two of his buddies almost float down a river while being stuck in the middle of the water holding two fishing poles (wading was a foreign concept to me at the time, and still is). To be honest, I'm surprised I survived living up in Oregon.

While I'm not the world's greatest survivalist, I did develop a respect for the outdoors, and my interest in being more in tuned with nature was sparked while living in Portland. Plus, now I have a ton of camping stuff that I'd like to use more than once, so the thought of a camping road trip sounds mighty fine right about now.

A colleague of mine at Texas State mentioned that she once went on a camping tour de force that took her from Lubbock, TX through northern New Mexico and Arizona, down and over, and then back up. Honestly, her story prompted my urge to rough it for a few weeks, but I'd extend the trip.

Ideally, I'd start out in Big Bend, TX and work my way up north through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Then I'd hook a left towards the Pacific Coast which would take me through parts of Idaho and Washington. Down the coast through my old stomping ground and NorCal before cutting right to hit up Nevada and Utah. Then I'd travel through Arizona, back across New Mexico and my old home of West Texas, which brings me back to Central Texas.

Of course I'd be camping, hiking, and fishing the entire time...you know, like men do. Now, I just need to learn how to do those things or at least have a guide that would keep me from freezing my ass off. Either way.

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