You've been waiting all week for this.

Every email answered, every drive to work, every minute spent in a cubicle was all for this. It's not a big adventure, not a trip to Argentina or New Zeland, just a drive down the road, in your own backyard.

You've sat through Friday evening traffic only to come home and pack up the car. You hit the road before dark, but by the time you get to the site, nothing is visible. The stars and moon shine bright, but your headlamp makes putting up the tent a little easier. You eat your freeze-dried food to the sounds of bugs, owls, and maybe even a fox scurrying around in the distance. You stare up through the top of your tent at all the lightning bugs performing their show.

You've been waiting all week for this. 

The morning is quiet and covered in dew. Your coffee is better than it's been all week. You clean up your site, pull on your fishing gear, rig up your rod. There's no long drive today, you'll walk right around the bend and upstream. You won't be seeing any other anglers. Today it's just you and the river and the fish. No societal noise, no cell phone, no social media, but more little trout than you can shake a stick at. Any dry fly works and every run produces a fish. 

You've been waiting all week for this.

The sky turns a bright orange. As you pass over your ridge far off on the horizon other mountains greet you. You stop for a moment, just to admire where you are. Sticking that headlamp in your pack was a good idea. Getting back to the site you fill your coffee cup with a fine bourbon and build a fire. It's not cold enough to need it, but what's camping without one? Another freeze-dried meal goes down and it tastes better than any five-star dinner you've ever had. The lightning bugs pick up their dance again, right where they left off. 

You've been waiting all week for this.

The tent is packed, campsite cleaned, a thermos filled. It's time to go. You take one more walk down to the river and thank her for what she's given you. The gravel road seems shorter on the way out, it always does.

Just make it through another week.

Happy weekend, friends! May you find adventures!