[ Dallas, Texas ]
Although my return to Corporate America is temporary, and for an excellent cause, my first week back into the world of Cubicle Being has been psychologically challenging. (Which is not to say, but is to imply strongly, “soul sucking.”)  Today this psychic torment was offset pleasantly by the arrival of a package. A package from OmniMap.com. What did this pleasant little order contain?
I’m glad you asked.
Unsurprisingly, it contained maps. Detailed maps. Maps suitable for planning. Scary maps. It was a package filled with informative cartographic stimulation and inspiration. It provided logistic support for what is shaping up to be an insanely cool trip, hereafter known as Adventure 2015. Adventure 2015 will take somewhere between six and nine months, depending upon routes, detours, weather, decisions to linger, and other delightful unknowns. Adventure 2015 will begin in Mongolia, and end at my guest house in Nepal. In between it covers a lot of ground. Some of that ground was represented in today’s package. I received maps for Mongolia, Northwestern China, and the wildly remote areas of the Tibet Autonomous Region. I smiled. Broadly.
For me, maps are pure inspiration. For me, nothing is more exciting than this simple recipe:

Look at maps
Imagine
[Plan]
Go!
Repeat

Planning is optional. And the word of the day is “map.”
*****