LOCATION: Corolla, North Carolina
GPS: 36°19'17.2528" N 75°48'27.2658" W
THE EQUIPMENT: Canon EOS 6D | EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM | Manfrotto Tripod
THE STORY: The source of so much distraction and restlessness - the internet - says today, in late January, there'll be party sunny skies and temperatures reaching near 70 degrees.
That doesn't bode well for focus and the to-do list.
There's something that starts singing deep inside my mind, and it's beautiful and rousing, goading me into a kind of all-day daydream, lulling me into visions of places I have loved, I still love, I long for.
Those places feature sand and surf, stars and dunes, tall grasses and boogie boards, steamed crustaceans and lime-flavored libations in honor of whatever created places where water, land, wind, and sky meet.
I call it spending time on the beach side of my mind.
It happens when driving in the car. Playlists created around a location with names like "Ocean City" or "Cape Hatteras" (and that easy-to-find channel on satellite radio, the one created by and dedicated to the late bard of escapism) are preferable to another podcast with people shouting about sports or politics or whatever.
It happens when the windows open on a January day like this and that warm, fresh breeze first drifts up to your senses. It doesn't smell like salt and ocean, but damn, if it doesn't get you to thinkin' it could. Easily. Just a morning's drive to the Jersey shore a long weekend in the OBX.
Alone? Maybe. Would it be nice to be joined by someone. Certainly. Either way, that song in my daydream, the call to go, it just won't stop.
So I restlessly shake my heel, the knee bouncing up and down like a car piston, as I sit at my desk and start to trip plan again.
IF YOU GO: Corolla, North Carolina
Dave Pidgeon is a seasoned writer and photographer from Lancaster, Pa. He lives with his three young sons and by the time you read this he may be setting up a tripod in the Outer Banks.