Happiness & A New Home

So as I’ve mentioned before I am taking a few months to work on a book about my Appalachian Trail experience this Summer.  So in order to accomplish this I needed a place to hang out and write.  I had a few criteria: first, that it would be warm during the winter; second, that it was near the ocean; and third, that it would be interesting but not too interesting as I do want to get the book done. This third criteria ruled out my first choice, New Orleans, I was afraid that I’d get too distracted in my favorite city.

When I mentioned these criteria on the trail this Summer, one of my hiking partners, Second Star had suggested Pensacola, Florida.  I’m happy to say that it was a great suggestion and that I have indeed landed a new temporary home in Pensacola.  The town fits my criteria and I’ve found a small place as my base of operations.

A new town, where you know almost no one is a bit daunting.  You consider things like your car breaking down, or being in the hospital and having no one who can come to your aid or help you out.  You get lost a bit, I’ve been lost three times in my first few days here.  You get lonely, even though, as the loner I am, back in California I would have likely spent this same time alone.  One of the things that concerns me a bit is the possibility of falling back into the well and getting a bit depressed.  However after today I’m much less concerned about that.

Pensacola is a fun town, I’ve found all of the essentials and it seems every weekend there is a festival in town.  Today, there was a huge art festival and next week an Italian festival.  I’m looking forward to my first trip to the national seashore and a road trip to Mobile, AL.  I met some cool local people today and I do have an old mentor in town who I’ll connect with soon and a high school friend not too far down the road.

Even more so today, after an afternoon nap, the writing juices starting flowing.  I really was in a mood to write this afternoon and this and another post were the result.  So I will be taking all of my own advice from this blog and will be working on being positive and moving forward, accepting my new changes.  My writing will be my focus for the next three months, hopefully a productive three months and lots of happy days my friends ~ Rev Kane