Travel is What’s Missing for Me

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Bog Pond in Savoy, Mass. Travel is what I need.
Bog Pond in Savoy, Mass. Travel to some new places is sorely needed.

I’ve been feeling quite in the depths of a trough of late. I find that when I am at the office I can work for few hours and then I get bored and frustrated. It’s like I don’t really want to be there and I’m just going through the motions of working.  The things that get me going and interested like travel are when I can muster the idea and energy to write a podcast script and then I get it recorded and uploaded. Then I feel at peace.IMG 5151

I’m going to be 65 years old next month, born on the 22nd of October in 1958.  I would love very much to be able to visit South Deerfield back in that year, so I could see what it looked like when there was a great big hotel dominating the center and the common. These burned down long ago, but I often wonder. This was a very quiet farm town in 1958.

But what is it that is making me so uninterested in my work and my business? I think it’s simple…not enough travel.

On any given year since 2004, I’ve been taking about 10 or 12 trips a year. Every month I’d have another one planned, either solo or with a press group.  I’ve also been setting up strings of trips lasting three weeks a few times a year, extending my visits, combining one with another, and making it all work.

This summer I traveled three weeks of June and then didn’t go anywhere in July or August except for a trip to NJ for a family wedding.   This eight-week-long homestay was too long. I lost my familiar routine of having a place to go, and topics to write about. I have been able to do some good things around the house but that travel piece is sorely missed.

The upstairs bedroom where I am removing paneling and wallpaper.
The upstairs bedroom where I am removing paneling and wallpaper.

So yesterday I did what I’m going to be doing more and more. I joined my friend Jack and we took our bikes and the kayaks out to Savoy Mountain State Forest and spent most of the day paddling and biking e-bikes. That was fun.  I also spent time removing horrible blue paneling from our guest room and this morning I spent hours and hours plucking nails out of the walls and trying to scrape the old wallpaper away.   I’ll have to leave this project for my return because tomorrow we fly up to Moncton, New Brunswick Canada and we will be visiting this province and taking a road trip along the coast.

In October I’ll be heading to Medford Oregon for a three night trip.  And in November I’ll fly down to to Gulfport Mississippi with my son Sam Hartshorne, who will join me on a four night, five day road trip crossing the coast of Mississippi and finding stories along the way.   Other plans include May in San Sebastian, Spain and a February trip to Tblisi, in the Republic of Georgia.   That’s what I’m supposed to be doing!