Summer vacation so soon 🏖️ 🌽 🚲 🏊

I usually do my summer vacation during the last week of July. Being farther west in the Finger Lakes it gives me about as much sunlight in the evening as Albany has on the first day of summer. But it also means by the time I get back home, summer is in inevitable decline with the evenings being darker earlier and the earliest hints of autumn starting to appear in the woods.

Just planning on another quiet, not notable vacation in the Finger Lakes. Probably the last one with Big Red, the last one in the Finger Lakes. I have my eyes on Michigan and Northern Wisconsin for 2026, traveling in a new truck, seeing new country. A real adventure. But just quiet this summer, laying back in the hammock, swimming in the gorges, hiking and riding trail, floating in the tube. Doing some reading and fishing, smoking some marijuana around the campfire, eating fresh sweet corn and farm produce. Listening to the cows moo and the crickets in the night, counting the shooting stars late into the night.

Maybe it’s what the anxious mind needs. A trip without too much planning or thought, 10 days of relaxation and giggles. Leave early on a Friday and have camp set up long before the weekend tourists arrive. Music and cold beer. Fires and freedom. A summer vacation like so many in years past without too many worries or fears.