As I  am wont to do, I was Tune In hopscotching and landed at B 105.7, Indianapolis, IN. Between light listening tunes, DJ Eric Allen shared responses to an interesting question he posed back in April — where is a place you would like visit around home?

He posted the question when people were thinking about all the things they are not doing … missing out doing … or wish they were doing.  He reasoned there was something productive you can do – either as an individual or as a family: Every time you wish you do something, go somewhere, treat yourself, see someone you love, visit a new place, invite someone to visit you, write it down on a piece of paper and put it in a jar.

Whenever things get back to normal, allow this jar to be your bucket list.  Work your way through all the things you wrote down – all the things you missed and all the things you wished you could be doing.

“As you work through that jar, more than likely you’ll have a sense of gratitude and probably will have a new perspective to not take the little things we miss now for granted,” he said, encouraging his listeners to enjoy filling up that jar.  He called it a “quarantine bucket list.”

So, now that the quarantine is lifted (at least in Indiana), he has been asking his followers to report their bucket list. His only caveat was the visit or event being in a 200 mile radius of Indianapolis. Thus far, some of the responses have been trail biking or hiking, attending the Indianapolis 500, and going to museums or zoos.

That woke up my neurons. They started darting hither and yon and reminded me how often we take the things closest to us for granted. For example, I lived in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty  for better than 30 years — and never went there. We penciled it in during a family trip back home, but it was under renovation and repair so we settled for seeing Lady Liberty from a distance. That’s just one of dozens of “tomorrows” that never materialized, be it in New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Washington, DC, Maryland, or New York.

My wanderlust has resulted in numerous staycations and day trips through the years. It wasn’t unusual to take the kiddos to some obscure outpost for the day in addition to the usual tourist traps. Karen and I did a lot of wine tasting and B&B hopping, especially after the kids flew out of the nest.

With more time on my hands, I have been a little more proactive traveling around Maine. I can say — and pat myself on the back while saying it — I have visited each of Maine’s 16 counties — including antiquing in Portland, stopping at Old Fort Western in Augusta, whale watching in Bar Harbor, sunrises in Lubec, and just plain enjoying the mountains, lakes, rivers, and ocean.

I do have a few Maine highlights to add now that I’m back. I did not get to see a Northern Lights display. I never took a Katahdin Cruise on Moosehead Lake. I never went back to hike to Tumbledown Pond {I did hike about halfway up the trail}. I never made it to the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory (the tallest observatory bridge in the United State — 420 feet in elevation) nor the Maynard F. Jordan Observatory in Orono (planetarium). Outside Maine, I failed to drive up Mount Washington in the White Mountains in neighboring New Hampshire or visit Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Trying to keep this spot interactive, what would throw in your local “bucket list jar”? Just share where you’re from and what hidden (or very visible) gems are in your neck of the woods that you have put off visiting or doing until “tomorrow”.

Then remember, no one is promised tomorrow.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Humble people live to serve.