Adventure Redefined

In April I blogged about my one Alpine adventure. That has inspired me to think more about what it means to have an adventure. I have always defined it as (with sincere apologies to Gene Roddenberry) "going where I have never been before."

When Ivy and I climbed partway up that Alp, I was a lot younger, considerably more athletic and prone to take actions that were not well planned. I once drove 1500 miles to visit a long-lost friend as a result of a phone call and the fact that I didn't have to work for the next four days. That same whimsy made me apply for a job while I was visiting her which resulted one month later in me packing my belongings into my aging Ford Pinto and taking up a new life 11 states and two climate zones away from where I'd lived all my life. New places and people excited me, they still do.

That said, I am not an explorer. I have no desire to see what is over the horizon. I want to follow the previously blazed trail. I do not want to be the first person into the new country. I would have loathed being with Daniel Boone or with Lewis and Clark. I want to see places I've never seen before, but I want someone to have gone before me doing the grunt work, marking where the quicksands are and letting me know beforehand that I need to have a supply of water with me or fill up my car with gas for the next several hundred miles.

Though not an explorer, I guess I could have been a pioneer, of sorts. I've popped up my tent in sundry beach and forest campgrounds from Maine to the Florida Keys, and when the weather was uncooperative, spent many a night in the back of my station wagon. I have slept in many a European youth hostel bed and used my Eurail Pass until it faded. Not so much in recent years though, as the creature comforts of Hampton Inn have taken precedence over the closeness to nature offered by camping and hosteling.

Another change is that I am no longer as enthusiastic about solo-adventuring as I used to be. It has nothing to do with fear and everything to do immediate sharing (and follow-up conversations)! Recently I saw an opportunity to "learn about wildlife photography" at our Zoo as part of the Wild Amelia Nature Festival. I was intrigued and gave it to my best friend as gift. 

Our adventure began when we had to get up and moving before 5:00 AM!!! The zoo is about an hour away and we were supposed to meet our group before 7:0) AM. The Wild Amelia organizer, Steve Leimberg, divided the group into 6 teams of about 5 and set us loose in the Zoo for hours before the official opening. How fabulous. I learned a lot. I participated in a fabulous behind the scenes tour, dined on a tasty, casual brunch. Took many, many pictures, met Ali (a elephant rescued from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch).

AND I patted a rhinoceros!!!!!!!

So, am I now less adventurous than I used to be? I don't believe I am; I believe I have redefined "adventure" as "looking at life through a different lens."

For anyone interested in an adventure with wildlife in an atmosphere permeated by jungle scents and wilderness noises but accompanied by civilized eating opportunities, enlightening conversations/lectures and convenient facilities, join me for this experience in 2015!