I strode into the office that Friday earlier than normal. It’s summer dog days, so it wasn’t a deadline driving the urgency. No, it was the excitement rather for what lay ahead: a camping adventure in the White Mountains of New Hampshire!

I felt pretty good about our rough itinerary. The plan was to shoot up Friday afternoon directly to a restaurant we previously settled upon (based upon a recommendation), then set up camp in the early evening and relax by the fire. For Saturday, we picked out an activity and planned an ambitious hike to follow with more relaxing fireside time carved out for the evening. Sunday, we’d break camp and hit a nature center on the way home. Outdoors adventuring at our own pace, my kind of a weekend.

Meanwhile… Up in JR’s brain land, a different adventure was playing out, something a bit wilder… something… fantastic.

With the audiobook: 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea, by Jonathan Franklin and the book book: How to Eat in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Foraging, Trapping, Fishing, and Finding Sustenance in the Wild, by Bradford Angier, close at hand through the weekend, the powers of imagination awoke.

As we enjoyed our (very tame) weekend, I daydreamed sensational tales of survival and self-reliance.

I was the Don Quixote of the Whites…

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