Do you have Adventure Days?

For me, every other Friday is Adventure Day!  At least, that’s what I’ve designated every other Friday from now until the end of Summer in my Freemanverse.  See, I’ve recently discovered a love of exploring small towns that lie beyond the boundaries of my usual, day-to-day routes and locales.  If I’m being honest, it’s a way of challenging the confines of my comfort zone by physically pushing beyond it and expanding myself.

When I set out, I consult my atlas, lace up my Nike’s, and hop in the car and go.  Once I arrive at the small town I’ve picked, I pull out my iPhone, which doubles as my trusty camera, and set out on foot in search of unique finds to photograph.

Small towns tend to be more weathered and mysterious than their medium and big city counterparts, partly because so much of the money that could have gone into modernizing little places like this–and making them more generic–has been funneled off by bigger cities.  You can forget about finding a whole lot about them on the web.  I consult my atlas, plot a dot on the map that I’ve never been to and know next to nothing about.

These out-of-the way places hold a somewhat unexpected gift for me, bliss.  I’m not sure exactly why it is, but my process of small town discovery feels more exhilarating than my typical, daily life. To me, it’s  the opposite of going to Disneyland or The Mall of America, or Vegas.  Small town exploration nourishes my sense of adventure and allows me to blaze my own trail, instead of following a trail that was very intentionally crafted by countless designers and millions of dollars with tourists, like me, in mind. This self-curated form of discovery forces my imagination to fill in the blanks and let me tell ya, small towns like these leave a lot of blanks to fill…
 

The photos above come from Oakaton, SD - pop. 36, Struble, IA - pop. 78, Reliance, SD - pop. 135 and Marietta, MN - pop. 162.  Since Marietta is the bigger of the bunch it might seem like it should have a rush hour, but look at those numbers again.  These towns house very few of the world’s 7.9 billion people.

But there are trade offs.  In these tiny towns, I have yet to stumble upon a Banana Republic, Blue Man Group Show, or a life-sized Snow White strolling around with Donald Duck, Darth Vader and Ariel.

It occurs to me that exploring also involves the acceptance of not knowing all the answers.  It takes a degree of courage to venture beyond the familiar.  Everytime I go on one of my Friday adventures, What if’s run through my head- what if I get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, what if somebody chases me out of town with a rake because they don’t like me snooping around and taking pictures of their town?  What if a stray dog finds me and gets bitey?  Of course, I can attest that this happens in familiar territory too.  Fortunately, Nippy, the small dog who bit my shin a few miles from home barely broke the skin.

Yes, to explore is to learn as I go and discover beauty, on its own terms.  Again and again, these small towns teach me that life doesn’t need to be flawless to be beautiful nor perfect to be loved and enjoyed.  

I invite you to try this for yourself. Keeping safety and common sense in mind, the next time you’re traveling a tried and true route you routinely take, pull off course and explore an area you’ve never really explored.  See what you discover there and, more importantly, see what you discover about yourself.