Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Might be time

Many people don't understand wanderlust - and that's exactly what it is. What do the Rockies look like? Do they feel "homey"? What about the the Mississippi Delta - maybe that'd be it? The east coast has some intrigue, perhaps the coastal area of Maine? Always wanted to see Florida, water and coast in three-directions, surely that'd cure the urge to travel. How 'bout the "old west", tales of vast deserts, and barron mountains intrigued me. The west coast?, yeah, that might be it - especially the pacific northwest, water abounds! The Great Plains, vast, and fertile appeal to the youngster I no longer am - what a bounty to the plow, and harvester.
Maybe the Gulf? Surely there would be something there that says "this is it", and squelch the seemingly insatiable urge to see what's next.

I knew as a kid that this urge was engrained in me. I knew as a young man, out of the Army, and turning soil on the family farm - that the day would come when I said "see you later". My wife knew too, she didn't understand, or share my compulsion - but she knew. My children didn't know (I tried to shield them from the inevitability). They grew, went on their own -- started their own lives -- and settled down. That's when I no longer felt compelled to stay-put.

My work allows me to travel virtually any direction, and for varying lengths of time. So slowly, I turned the accounts I'd built at "home" over to trusted colleagues, and replaced them with projects that have spanned the US, and even tickled a few areas of Canada. The calander doesn't lie, and it's been a decade of "seeing it all" now, finding the perfect spot to call home.

The harsh truth -- that I had to learn myself -- is that no such place exists on earth. Fact is, you could plant your flag almost anywhere, and make a go of it. I've learned what I do, and don't like in terms of weather, topography - things we can't control, and what I do, and don't like in terms of things we do (politics, religion, population density).

After all the miles, the countless cities, towns, and rural areas - I still don't have an answer as to "where". I do know that starting round two of "seeing it all" holds little appeal. Maybe, perhaps, it's time to lay some brick 'n' morter of my own.

Wanderlust, torment or satisfaction? I'm not sure of the answer, but am versed on the symptoms.

Home is where you hang your hat.

Bloom where you're planted.

Some folks never find their "home" and all that goes into the meaning of that word. I hope you find yours.

A few years ago I started thinking about retirement and looked at several places---Colorado, Wyoming, Tennessee and New Mexico just to name a few. I found that where I live now kept winning out over all of them so here I am.

I used to love to travel but have completely lost that urge. I never intend to spend another night away from home and hearth (if I had a hearth). I don't even like to go to Montgomery but it is necessary about once a week.

I am as happy as a dog with two tails and may be one of the most contented people on earth and I give thanks for it without ceasing.

That's a fact, and one that I don't understand. I grew up in a tight-knit farm family, then raised my own family with roots planted. The constant, nagging inner-voice just never left me - ever.

Oddly, I find the actual travel as being tedious. It's the being in a new area, seeing things - landscape, water - nature, that compells me.

Better wear an earring and a bandana with a broadbrimmed hat Pard because YOU are a Gypsy

I did!

I was over 40 before I lit-out.

Most days for that forty years, I'd waken, and fall asleep restless - wanting to "go".

I agree that you could make a go of it anywhere you plant your flag...that said, the Texas Hill Country is still God's country as far as I'm concerned. If my six numbers ever hit...I'll be spending part of my time on a Texas Hill Country ranch, and the other part of my time in the Colorado high country.
For now, I'll get by in dead-ass, dreary Oklahoma.

You write well about a subject I'm all to familiar with, Se�or.

GTC

>laughin'<

Got the hat - with really broad brim, needed for protecting this very Scandanavian skin ('specially the follicaly challenged forehead).

Bandana's I had to abandon, used to wear 'em on the noggin, which has become far to slippery to hold 'em.

Home?.....If it ain't in Dixie it don't exist.

Flower Child

I was curious 'bout you. Having grown up in the opposite manner I did, I was wondering if you were compelled to to be stationary.

You answerd that. Guess it's just "built-in".

Dixie, Texas hill country, the Adirondacks, the bluffs of WI/MN, all hold appeal - as do the coastal areas in any direction, and countless points in between.

My tastes I learned, run toward sparsely populated areas, with access to water, and temperate climate. I've found nothing that's "perfect", and believe it doesn't exist.

You can spend a lifetime chasing what simply doesn't exist, but if you have engrained in you the want, you will pursue it.

===================

Yes,he does. It seems restlessness from familiarity is setting in with our friend,Mako,and the comfort that accompanies it has been discarded for the time being. Look at your inner circle and focus on those who left that comfort zone of familarity and then ask yourself where are they now. I feel that what you might be experiencing is age specific and completely natural.

Snap the [bleep] out of it! Folks depend upon you.

"Don't build on a mountain or linger in valleys
Or be thinking too highly of any one place"

I was just trying to cheer up a good man. I've seen this with friends and family many times in my life. Some do something about it,which is admirable,some do not.Inevitably,most seem to find their way back home,if it's still considered home. Mako is a wise man. He'll sort it out.

Maybe he feels his Sunday football picks would be better if made them from a new environment!

Families from Colorado and Oklahoma. Thought about cashing out and moving west from Virginia. Went west visited, second wife was not interested and third was OK with it.
One evening, while having a beer and watching the sun go down here in Virginia, I realised that I like trees and didn't like relatives close by.
So I'm staying.

Jim

>snort<

My prowess for football picks is as good from a mountain top, as it is from a boat, in the middle of an ocean (I just have enough sense not to bet 'em). >grin<


As a kid, I'd participate in the group functions; family get-togethers, sports, group hunts, but never felt "a part" of it.
At the first opportunity, I'd break away from the classic deer drives, and still hunt -- at times, for days -- just to see what's over the next ridge.
As a young man, I worked, raised my family, and had my roots, but absolutely thirst for "seeing in all". And I have! Oh the wonders of this ol' earth - they're inumerable, but finite. The vast richness of mountain, prarie, stream-to-ocean is endless, yet confined. The lust for finding "it", is fed, then dashed when a cool morning at 8,000 ft on a New Mexico mountain top turns to blistering, dry heat by early afternoon. Time for the next thing, maybe that'll be "it". Catching fish on a warm Wisconsin afternoon, turns to bone-chilling discomfort by the next day, when the winds blow from the north. Pouring concrete in the winter of south Texas has tangable advantage - which rapidly evaporates -- literally! -- when June rolls around.

I just had to see it, and I have. Home? I still don't know.