I feel like I’ve written about this before, but I couldn’t find anything in my blog searching. One of the things that hits me (and my wife) hard after (out-of-town) races or long trips is the depression of returning to real-life again. Within a day or so of returning home we both get the blues, bad. It’s so hard to come back from a great trip, or a great race (participating or volunteering), and come face to face with needing to get back into our routine.

Before anyone worries, I’m fully aware of it, and I know what it is when I feel it, so it’s not something that I feel is dangerous, or that I’m a risk to myself. However, that doesn’t change how much it basically sucks. The incredible highs that we experience when we travel, especially when doing races, just can’t compare with the day-to-day routine of regular life. Granted, I often need a full day of rest after returning from a trip, because of how much we’ve been doing, but it still feels like it’s more exciting than being at home.

It’s the type of thing that sometimes makes me want to just sell everything and get an RV and spend my life traveling from place to place. I know that’s not feasible or realistic, but it’s the feeling that I get when I return home sometimes. I know a part of it is a general dissatisfaction with my career right now, and feeling like I want to do something different than what I’m doing (but stuck for various reasons, including financial). But for the time being it’s what I need to do to get by.

In the meantime, we’ve already been planning our travel for the rest of the year. We’ve got plans to hit some new State Parks, and give our trailer a workout with multiple camping trips. Most of our trips are just for a weekend, or a slightly extended 3-day weekend, but that means it’s easier to squeeze more of them in. I’m excited for more of our trips this year, as well as some of the races we’re going to be at. I just need to remember that coming home is a part of the process, and that soon it will all be OK again. We’re doing things that make us happy, even if that comes with a bit of a cost when we return.