Starting 2012 with 31 Days of Adventure

Author's note: Thanks to everyone who participated in fundraising for Heifer International by commenting on my blog. I took a cue from Nathan and doubled my pledge to $2 per comment and am rounding up to an even $40. It's going to "where most needed" for Heifer. Hooray!

I'm always on the lookout for adventure, as you know. So, when Katie over at Adventure-Inspired posted about 31 Days of Adventure, I didn't even have to finish reading her post before I knew I was on-board.

31 Days of Adventure is a project taking place this January, put on by Amy of Expand Outdoors and Lydia of Wander Lydia. The concept is simple: Each day during the month of January, they'll email you a daily adventure meant to challenge you and make your day just a bit more interesting. I have no idea what these adventures will be, but I can't wait to find out!

I explained the idea behind my blog's title in this post. The concept is essentially exactly what Amy and Lydia have laid out for 31 Days of Adventure. Adventures don't have to be huge in order to enrich our lives. Most of the time, in fact, adventure is all about perspective. Overcoming an unexpected challenge doesn't have to be an aggravating experience if you simply look at it as an adventure.

Here's an example: Last Friday was my last day of teaching school before the winter break. Believe me, it was painful keeping the kids focused that close to Christmas, but vacation was so close I could taste it! (Plus, I kept them busy by giving two tests on Friday. Yes, I am that teacher.) I'm fortunate to have a carpool partner who lives in Truckee and teaches at my same school in Reno. When we got on the freeway Friday morning, the road information sign immediately told us the highway was closed and we should take the next exit. Crap!

I steered us down surface streets toward the far end of town hoping we could take the last freeway entrance and get past the closure while Katie researched the situation on her iPhone. Turned out we wouldn't be able to bypass the closure and a hazmat clean up would keep us trapped in Truckee for several hours. Who would give my students their tests!?

We called a couple friends to discuss our re-route options and decided to take Dog Valley Road - a dirt road that would reunite us with the freeway in the hills west of Reno. It's a summer-only route that neither of us had ever taken, but with the lack of snow and my trusty Subaru, we decided to go for it! It turned our 40 minute drive into a 90 minute adventure through the mountains. Kind of an exciting start to the work day, and definitely a daily adventure. Our principal, who is apparently familiar with Dog Valley Rd., couldn't believe we made it in to work, (but we're dedicated teachers that way).

If you want to get involved with daily adventures in January, just head on over to the website and sign up to get the emails. If you have a website or blog, you can also add it to the list of participating sites.

Happy adventuring!