Lately, I have had an avid interest in experiencing nature. However, this comes from a perspective of turning off my phone, escaping modern conveniences, and trying to deafen out the sounds from trails that are in tuned more with the city. Today, after a hard day of doing the opposite of my normal eco friendly routine of driving a Prius I have been learning to kill small trees in regards to my new job. Kinda a paradox huh?

I will explain... and point this into my local travel routine to steer you into the right direction. My loveable Prius was totaled two months ago.... by yes.. a distracted driver. This has totally offset my routine as I have been driving a rental and learning a job that requires me to put enough gas emissions into the air to poison a small village. The paradox is that I stress the importance of tuning modern technology out of a car when traveling with the exception of the radio. The same modern conveniences in which I starve myself during a trip have been the same modern conveniences that have placed me into a new job and left me without my treasured gas saver for a small duration.

So my travels have been taking me to homes outside of my real estate career. I have placed the Prius on the backburner and have been learning to drive a thirty eight foot truck in my spare time. Lately, my normal routine of meeting with clients and learning to do real estate sales has been quite the opposite.... It has been an uncomfortable, anxious, and yet exciting time that has taken me to several places. In the past several days, instead of trying to sell contracts my priorities have been being the muscle behind the moving industry.. Hard work has always been my forte but driving monster trucks is not..

My point being is that after a day of screaming drivers, failed attempts of backing into the loading docks, and watching people perform race car maneuvers around my rig I desperately needed a local travel escape.

My escape brought me unto Emerald Island in North Little Rock. It wasn't far from the traffic in downtown Little Rock in the area in which I was working. I have found that I enjoy local trails that have some sort of water features such as; rivers, lakes, streams, and even water fountains on a hot summer day.

The trail is something of beauty in that it is located in the city of North Little Rock but it is off the beaten path enough to provide a sense of escape. My first priority was to rid myself of the bicyclists, joggers, and hikers. I tend to stray off the path and find a quiet place to sit alone and reflect on my day. Nature seems to bring the self reflection side out of me and as I overlooked the water my triumphs, failures, and anxiety seemed to dampen. My time spent in nature helps me to understand my shortcomings from the day and think about what matters most in my life.

The trail itself winds in a fashion across the river which leads unto Little Rock. However, Emerald Park is a much more strenuous hike which lacks the modern convenience of paving. After finding a spot away from the ipods, phones, and talking I reached the peak of the cliffs. Most people follow the trail markers however, being a daredevil I tend to stray from the markers and take the less traveled path. My final destination was sitting on a rock that overlooked a bluff to watch the sunset.

My conclusion for the day is that in hiking and traveling to new spots sometimes you have to reach from your comfort zone to experience a new perspective on things. Yes, it can cause some anxiety... Yes, it can cause some strain... But in the end result the reward of a new experience outweighs the monotony of taking the beaten path.