I am halfway through a run of back-to-back weekends that I am off adventuring, gallivanting, traveling, and otherwise having a great time. This summer has been fantastic! For the last three weekends I’ve been exploring in Arizona, Montana, and California, and in the coming weeks I’ll head back to Arizona (twice) and also do some hiking in Great Basin National Park (Nevada). I am not complaining, I feel incredibly lucky that I have the time, funds, and friends to make these adventures happen. The idea of spending a week at work and jetting off on Friday afternoon to someplace fabulous to spend time with dear friends or my sweetheart is so…intoxicating. In many ways it fulfills the requirements for my Dream Life. (Of course, in my Dream Life I might have funds and ability to include places like Paris or Peru or New Zealand in my travels instead of, you know, the middle-of-nowhere Nevada.) I have loved having a half-packed suitcase in the corner of my bedroom, filling it through the week with the freshly laundered underwear and necessary wardrobe pieces for the next adventure. I have loved the insanely low grocery budget because 4 days at home requires so much less food than 7 days at home. I have truly loved and been nourished by spending time with the humans I care about the most in the world.

But do you want to know something else?

I’m also tired. I feel like I could use a 3-hour nap any given Tuesday (and Thursday) (and Wednesday). I day-dream about a lazy Saturday morning to sleep in and it is not completely unheard of for me to crawl into bed before 8pm, read for 30 minutes, and go to sleep. I’m sure my body will eventually get the better of my wander-lusting heart and demand I take a few days to recover…but it’s not today. As we speak I’m planning my suitcase for two separate trips, one this weekend and one the weekend after. And, despite the dark circles under my eyes and the incessant bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper at my desk, I think I prefer it this way. I’ll sleep when I’m dead and I’ll stop exploring when they pry my Road Trip app from my cold dead fingers.

So, basically, there will need to be a lot of dying before I’ll truly stop seeking the beautiful places. I’ll slow down, eventually, but not quite yet.

Photo: Utah’s Highway 95, somewhere north-west of Blanding and not quite to Capitol Reef National Park.