How do you cope when you're stuck at home?

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DRAX

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Advocate I

1,451
Monticello, IL
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Hogan
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Whittall
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28590

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I live so far in the sticks I have Starlink for internet at my house....but I digress.

Admittedly, I know close to nothing about IL...other than I saw a police car back in 2003 that had a "NORMAL POLICE" decal on the side of the car on my way to Kalamazoo to pick up a Jeep. I still chuckle about that to this day :laughing:

I did a quick look around central IL and found plenty of small towns with one restaurant that would be worth some time to visit. I am also a historic rail fan and see plenty of derelict depot sites to geek out on. Looks like there are several historic bridges that need checked out too. Heck, Route 66 is in your backyard and a destination many folks seek out. Dang it, now I want to explore the backroads of IL. Exploring your backyard isn't necessarily about putting the truck in 4wd, it is about checking out those weird, quirky, historical sites and landmarks that noooooobody gives a second thought about. Sometimes an old, rough, paved county road will lead you right where you didn't know you wanted to go. It's all about how you perceive your surroundings and journey, especially when the destination is simply getting back home.

Here is a trip report I did several years ago about traveling through Western Kansas...you know, the part of Kansas everybody tries to get through as fast as possible on the interstate because it is so boring on their way to the West.
Yeah, we live in one of those cool/quirky little towns and the GPS often times takes us on county roads to get places, some of which are just gravel, but it's still largely passing by corn or soybean fields. Load up Google Maps, switch to satellite view, pick a random spot in Illinois, zoom in. Flat fields everywhere with a few exceptions. We have forest preserves here (one right across the road from our neighborhood) that we'll walk or bike around. There used to be various festivals, like Soda Fest where craft soda companies would come and you could sample and buy sodas, have some good food from food trucks, etc, but that's been ruined by COVID and the attempt to restart it was pretty bad as it was more about local businesses trying to promote themselves than anything. The soda companies weren't there anymore, it was just local businesses handing out samples of soda while they try and drum up business. :/ About a mile away is an R/C park (airplanes, drones, off-road cars, etc) that has a 2-3 events per year. We've also got a railway museum neighboring the R/C park with a running steam loco and such. Not to say that if you've seen one little Illinois town you've seen them all, and I do enjoy driving, but short of places like Cave-in-Rock or Garden of the Gods in southern IL (3.5 hours away) or Starved Rock (1.5 hours away), or Kickapoo State Park (1 hour away and good for floating on a river), or even going to Chicago for a weekend (for the food and city sights), it's really quite bland here. Even the food (outside of Chicago) is pretty disappointing if you come from or have been to places that actually have good food.

I am part of an overlanding and adventure group on FB as well, most members live near Chicago which means they're a lot closer to Wisconsin which as things like the Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail, or heading over to Michigan. It also means there's a lot of "what is there to do?" questions from new members and by and large the answer is "drive to another state." haha

Perhaps I'll get my R/C rock crawler out from storage and freshen it up to at least bring with me/us in case the opportunity to use it presents itself.
 

MOAK

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Off-Road Ranger I

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Wherever we park it will be home !!
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When I retired some friends were concerned that I would just sit and watch TV. WOW, those friends didn't know me very well and have since been relegated to "positive business relationship" status. When we aren't on a long trip to the southwest, I'm either planning the next one, (my wife and I love pouring over maps) doing yard work/pleasure, keeping my 1996 Landcruiser and my 1990 Ford Ranger well maintained, or I am building, kit-bashing, painting, weathering, running & maintaining my Red Mesa & Eastern Railroad in HO scale, circa 1963. We also take short trips quite often to visit the kids, RI and SC, camp in the hills of Pennsylvania, or travel a bit further into upstate NY, VT, MD, WV & VA. I get the Illinois thing, I was raised in very rural Ohio and to see anything we would climb up to the tops of the silos. For the 4th of July, we'd find a shade tree overlooking our lake and swing in off the rope. The 5th? Back to bailing hay & straw, the old fashioned way. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois? Boring boring boring. Ohio didn't even look good in the rear view mirror, nor will Illinois. Nonetheless, I touched on a couple of things I do to stay occupied. I also read a lot, take my time, smell the roses, enjoy my wife and enjoy some good single malt along with top shelf vodka or gin. Yuengling is always on tap next to the dart board. Oh, BTW, sitting and watching TV? I might consume 2 or 3 hours per week. OK then, time to jell out and run some trains. It's too dam hot and muggy outside now.

 

DRAX

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Monticello, IL
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or I am building, kit-bashing, painting, weathering, running & maintaining my Red Mesa & Eastern Railroad in HO scale, circa 1963.

That's awesome! We had actually thought about building our own model train layout after going to one of the Great Train shows but life got in the way. Long-term projects don't seem to take hold in this house very well either, but maybe down the road when I'm retired and it's something I could dedicate time to. On the other hand, if I'm retired then I expect my wife and I will probably spend quite a bit of time on the road.
 

CR-Venturer

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Ardrossan, AB, Canada
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We just moved to a 5 acre property in the country, and I have six kids, including an 8 week old, so I have mountains more projects and jobs to do than I have time to do them, but as a suggestion, what about some home reno projects? Almost every home has things that could be improved, fixed, replaced or whatever. You can learn new skills and make your home nicer at the same time.
 

DRAX

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Advocate I

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Monticello, IL
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Hogan
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We just moved to a 5 acre property in the country, and I have six kids, including an 8 week old, so I have mountains more projects and jobs to do than I have time to do them, but as a suggestion, what about some home reno projects? Almost every home has things that could be improved, fixed, replaced or whatever. You can learn new skills and make your home nicer at the same time.
Our house was built in 2009 so not much in the way of upkeep/reno/maintenance projects. My wife and I are unsure how long we'll live here for, she wants an in-ground pond and we both want a deck on the back of the house and some french doors added to the master bedroom that opens onto the deck, but those are pretty big projects and not really ones we'd want to do if we may end up moving away within a few years. I actually just did a little project of adding felt pads to the door jambs to make the doors close more quietly.

I definitely do make notes of improvements to make as they pop into my head, but other than the deck and pond desires we both feel like the house is as perfect for us as it could be. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
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deagle

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Contributor III

201
Colorado, USA
First Name
Tbird
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Smith
WFH is a real mixed blessing. Some things that help me: get up and MOVING often, preferably outside. I walk and bike a lot for this reason. You don't even need a lot of time to do this. Have a half hour between meetings? Get outdoors and get moving.

It also helps to remember there's a ton of smaller things you can do to get out in nature that don't require planning a big trip. I've been finding small parks that aren't busy and taking the family there for the afternoon to see the water/get out in nature, etc.

Heck, I'm not above grabbing my bedroll and sleeping on the floor by my open windows or on my backyard patio couch here and there.

One thing I'm working on long term since I can also WFH is setting up my trailer so I can work out of it. That way we can take longer trips eventually.
 

CR-Venturer

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Traveler III

3,372
Ardrossan, AB, Canada
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Jas
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Spr
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WFH is a real mixed blessing. Some things that help me: get up and MOVING often, preferably outside. I walk and bike a lot for this reason. You don't even need a lot of time to do this. Have a half hour between meetings? Get outdoors and get moving.

It also helps to remember there's a ton of smaller things you can do to get out in nature that don't require planning a big trip. I've been finding small parks that aren't busy and taking the family there for the afternoon to see the water/get out in nature, etc.

Heck, I'm not above grabbing my bedroll and sleeping on the floor by my open windows or on my backyard patio couch here and there.

One thing I'm working on long term since I can also WFH is setting up my trailer so I can work out of it. That way we can take longer trips eventually.
I'm very blessed that my work phone has unlimited data, and my employer has no issue with us tethering to our phone and working from almost anywhere. I often go out to the "bush office" to work. Nothing like an office with a camp fire!
 

archer75

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Contributor III

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Oregon, USA
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Tom
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Thomas
I can be a homebody. So staying at home doesn't really bother me. I have more video games, tv and movies then I can possibly consume. And hobbies to keep me busy as well as home and yard cleaning and maintenance. Sure we enjoy camping but i'm good at home too. We do live just at the base of a mountain in a small town. So hiking, camping, trails, fishing, etc. are very close by.
 
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Advtres

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Steward I

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I feel ya, while I admit living in CA is good we do have a huge ocean on 1 side... Makes over-landing by wheels a N,E or S... there is no west..

My husband calls me an outside cat... While I love my home, and all the things we have ( garden, horses, shop full of projects, motorcycles - the list goes on )...

I really feel happy outside, exploring some trail, or forgotten byway ... it is my zen. Give me a tent, a thunderstorm and a day of possibilities... heaven.

What I do to keep myself sane between these periods is plan my next trip, or some future future trip ( like Alaska ).
I am huge into geology, archeology, biology, pre history, early history, history-history which comes with activities like metal detecting, photography, rock collecting, gold panning, you name it.

So I research my trips and use the down time to maintain my equipment, refine my rig and accoutrements.
Maps, google earth, books, reports or write ups on the internet - its that little carrot that keeps me sane.

I have started testing things at home too, ie does my little one burner stove make toast, why yes it does, does it make marshmallows, why yes it does. Is there a good recipe I can freeze and then have on the trip? - Maybe!
Just fun things to use and refine my goods & equipment. Like I started planning a deck plate for the rear of the 4Runner - ie., things I can do to enhance my adventures.

If between adventures I need to get out ( like NEED!), I can take my motorcycle, go for a tour and with it am given wings even for a brief time, or an overnight somewhere in the tent - it is enough.

See ya down the trail