I thought I would take a few minutes and jot down for posterity what would cause me to want to sell almost everything I own, shut down my business, and travel around the country with my family in a Fifth Wheel. Maybe I’ll need to look back and read this a few times during the next few months to remind myself. I hope not, but it is definitely a possibility. Some of the people I know have to be wondering what in the hell we are thinking as well. Maybe this will help them understand.

So where to start? The easiest motivation to identify is some amount of Wanderlust. I love seeing new things and experiencing new places. Having spent the vast majority of my life in places that are almost uniformly flat, wet, hot, humid, and full of pine trees, I find the majesty of the Tetons or the haze hanging on the Smokies striking in a way I can’t quite put into words. Alaska still seems to me the Great Frontier. Part of what makes America great and majestic is it’s massive size and scope, both geographically and culturally. I want to experience it for myself and with my wife. I want my children to experience it. I believe we will be changed by it in a meaningful way.

The writings of John Muir have reminded me of the intense call of the wild that when answered helps us re-center ourselves in what has become a wild and crazy world. Anger and hate and distrust and fear perpetuate so easily that sometimes unplugging and returning to nature really can help us find the perspective that is so easily lost.

Don’t get me wrong. We aren’t casting off all creature comforts. We still need the internet for work and school (and Netflix) and mama’s tolerance for temps above about 72 is mighty thin. But learning about erosion in the morning and seeing the Grand Canyon after lunch will be pretty cool.

There’s also more to this decision though. Why do we wait until we are in our 50s or 60s to do those things we have always wanted to do? Why don’t we do them when we are young AND when we are old? What happens if you wait until the kids go to college, or when we retire, or, or, or… and then you have a massive heart attack one day, or another pandemic happens, or the polar ice caps melt, or aliens attack?

I suppose the safe decision is to keep doing the same thing day after day with as much security as one can muster. But I want my kids to see that it is ok to follow a dream. It is ok to decide that you need a change and to make that change. It is ok to follow your heart. It may not be easy or conventional. Your family and friends may not all really understand. But you only have one life to live so you might as well LIVE it.

I know this all sounds like a Jimmy Buffett song. And 385 square feet with a family of four and half of Noah’s ark seems daunting. But if not now, when? There will always be reasons not to do it. But if the reasons to do it are what you lay awake thinking about at night, maybe you should follow your heart. That’s what we are going to do.