Spur of the Moment Adventure

Anyone else ever want to just up and take a trip somewhere? Not to run away from anything or escape your life, or because you just need a vacation, but to go and explore somewhere else just for the sake of it. That’s the sort of thing I find myself pondering this evening. Nothing extravagant or financially reckless, just pack a small bag with a change of clothes and the personal necessities, empty my pockets of pretty much everything but my ID and a hundred bucks or so in cash and just leave for a few days and see where life takes me.

How far could I get and what sort of things would I experience? Given a day to plan something out, I imagine I might be able to get pretty far and see some amazing things. The idea certainly sets my imagination free to come up with all manner of possibilities. Granted, the weather being what it is here in Ohio this time of year (damp, chilly, and generally shitty for those outside the heartland) it certainly limits my options.

Moto-Camping is the first option off the list. That’s a real bummer because given the locations for free camp sites and very VERY basic DIY meal options purchased along the way, my little 300cc Honda would afford me a range of about 2,300 miles round trip. Knowing that I’d have at most 5 days at a time without my daughter, that’s a little over 450 miles a day. Breaking that down to an average speed of 60 miles an hour that’s a solid 8 hours of riding every day. 

I could basically go as far as I felt like riding and have plenty of gas money to spare but I’m not all that interested in days of being cold and damp with my hands half frozen to the handlebars just to see more of Ohio.

Likewise, taking a long walk/hitch hiking is out of the question.  First off, because I’m not down to try and hitch a ride anywhere (I think it’s illegal but it’s irrelevant) and wind up way further than I can walk back from. Walking could be an option but even at a brisk pace, I could probably manage to get about 60 miles away under ideal conditions before I had to start making my way back.  That takes that one off the list too, if you’ve seen 10 miles of the Ohio countryside, you’ve seen pretty much all there is to see, plus I’d head away from Columbus which means I’d get days and days of seeing empty farm fields. No Thanks.

That leaves a car or a plane. Taking the new truck for a little road trip certainly has its appeal but, again, range becomes a factor. Trucks aren’t known for their fantastic fuel efficiency, so I suspect I wouldn’t get more than a few hundred miles away before I had to start working my way back as to not run out of gas money.  It’s certainly an option though and one that could be quite fun and rewarding.

With air travel being the remaining option, I know I can get plane tickets round trip for around $80 and that would undoubtedly take me far beyond Ohio’s borders, but where to go? This last possibility is the one that I find particularly interesting to think about. Just get a ride to the Airport, pick up a ticket, and head off on a little adventure.

I find it the most fascinating because I’m kind of on a minimalizing kick lately and the wonderful TSA guidelines and only having a small carry on really put some strict limitations on what I’d be able to take with me. I’m sure I could manage to pack just the essentials (another topic I find thrilling, what would I actually take) but the big question is what could I experience in 3 or 4 days with just $20 left over after airfare?

If I set some ground rules like accepting rides or a place to sleep for the night as being ok, but I had to pay for everything else, food and whatever else I felt was necessary or wanted to do, what would it actually be like? What would I do? What would I see? Who would I meet? How cool that would be to experience and document! It makes me want to answer all those questions of what I would actually take and go ahead and just pack a bag and have it there ready to go should the opportunity ever present itself.

For those that know me, the concept of having a bag packed and ready to go is nothing new. I’ve got several prepper style ‘Go Bags’ or ‘Bug Out Bags’ with all sorts of things I might need for any given situation if the proverbial shit ever were to hit the fan.  I don’t, however, have a ‘spur-of-the-moment-adventure bag’, at least not yet.  But, with a little bit of time left before I usually head off to bed and my ramblings for the evening feeling like they are coming to a natural stopping point, I think I may just go ahead and put one together before the pups and I call it a night. Maybe I will have to do another post and let you all know what sort of things I ended up including. Anyway, thanks for reading!