Are you coming with me?

I'm going to drive a van.

Not just any van. My van.

In the very back, the seat will be gone. Instead, I'll have a roll-up mattress, my favorite sleeping bag, a change of clothes and a foot locker full of belay devices, ropes, paddles, helmets, and various kinds of harnesses.

Bags of good food will be easily-accessible in the back seat, right next to my guitar. Because what is a proper adventure car without Whole Foods groceries and acoustic music? 

I wouldn't be opposed to strapping bikes to the back of the vehicle and a kayak on top of it.

The dashboard will be strewn with atlases, maps, classic literature and empty Cape Cod jalapeno cheddar potato chip bags. 

Oh, and I'll probably have a prism hanging from the rear-view mirror. Dude. Light refraction in the car. Sick.

There will be a sunroof specifically for the purpose of stargazing. And under a seat somewhere I'll keep some firewood. 

The front passenger seat is strictly reserved for a friend, an adventurer, someone I love. And that could be anyone, so if you're interested, and willing to go halfsies on fuel costs, call me.

We're going to take off and drive it all around the country. It'll see every coastline, every hill country, every mountain, every desert. We're going to go places where we can look up and really, truly see the infinite. When we get tired, we'll stop and rest. We will "get there when we get there". We'll make stops at all the little hole-in-the-wall, family-owned restaurants to get pancakes for dinner at 11:00 at night. We'll pull over for random hikes and campfire wind-downs where we'll sing and laugh and tell stories and listen to the silence while the smoke stains our sweatshirts and the campfire dances in our eyes. We'll put our feet up on the dash and get really attractive sandal tans. I might cry a little when we have our heart-to-heart conversations, but it will be authentic, and it will be good. We're going to be real. We're going to see and feel the earth below our feet. We're going to find that place where time and direction don't exist. We're going to smile a lot because we're going to be so freaking happy.

We're going to go on an ADVENTURE. 

~~~~~

And someday it'll all be real. I'll be a twenty-something with a little cash, a little time, and that van parked outside of my little home. Someday I'll sit down at my desk, pick up my phone, dial the numbers of some old friends, and say: 

#dreaming