FOR DOMESTIC BLISSTERS

When I find a hole in the otherwise rich English language, I like to take a stab at filling it. Sometimes this whimsy teetering on hubris works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m undecided about my latest: “blisster,” someone who follows his or her bliss as prescribed by Joseph Campbell. The word has potential in that it evokes “hipster.” It’s problematic in that its homophone is “blister.” Though you could easily get a blister being a blisster. Following your bliss can be a bear.

I don’t mean to suggest I’m developing calluses on my fingers from all this clicking and entering. But as I’ve previously indicated, this systemic sweepstaking is not effortless, especially the daily entries that make you key in your address and, most often, your birthday and phone number and email (twice, to be sure) each and every time.

This is a roundabout way of getting to my summer travel plans, an annual exercise in following my bliss. Part of me wants to stay stateside and do something in the great outdoors. Last year, I rented a little log cabin in Bath County, Virginia. My son and I went for soaks at The Jefferson Pools and swimming in our own private water hole right there on the farm, in the Wallawhatoola River, which has been renamed The Cowpasture River. Another possibility is Maine, the only New England state my son has yet to visit.

Then again, if Lady Luck deigned to descend upon my little life in the form of one of these trips, I’d be feeling a touch of the bliss.

Missouri, Lake of the Ozarks, two nights at the Country Club Hotel and Spa and – love this – a picnic at Ha Ha Tonak State Park. My grandmother’s nickname was Ha Ha. To enter, click here.

This month’s Hot Spot Contest from Frommer’s is four days in the New York Finger Lakes region, in counties whose names mean nothing to me save Steuben, where Corning Glass is made. For the itinerary, scroll down the Official Rules to the prize language.

For more on Joseph Campbell and the pursuit of bliss, click here.