Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 2)

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.

Does anyone remember the TLC show back in the day called “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding”? I remember watching that show and not caring so much about the over-the-top extravagant weddings. My real concern was all of these people living in campers. There were several times I turned to Drew and made him watch a portion I rewound to show their living arrangements, specifically saying “there is no way I could ever do that”. At the time, we had never even been camping. It was 2010, we were fresh out of law school and living at the beach. Fast forward to 2014, we now have two kids and started camping a few weekends in a travel trailer because this momma doesn’t sleep on the ground or without access to a shower. I fully admit that I put the “Glam” in glamping. We traded up in size pretty quickly to a travel trailer with a bunkhouse, because it doesn’t take long to have kids stuff exploding everywhere. In my head I’m thinking “we’re on vacation, we need to just shut a door on their mess because I’m not dealing with it”. It was a good thing we did, because soon Drew was working out of town for weeks on end and ended up living in it instead of hotel hopping. He came home and talked about how much he actually enjoyed it. Again, I said, ‘No thanks’. He started watching a lot more youtube channels instead of cable channels, and suddenly “Keep your Daydream” and “Less Junk < More Journey” become household viewing standards. Drew and the kids are fascinated with their travels around the country. Me? not so much. If you haven’t caught on yet, I’m not real big on change or travel in general. I’ll go, but I’m going to overpack to get there.

A couple of years later and we are taking longer and longer trips. Fall break 2019 found us in Atlanta for a week and change before moving on down to Auburn, AL to take the kids to their first Braves and Auburn football game. Little did we know that was one of the last trips we’d get to take for a while. Covid hit before we really had a chance to even de-winterize the camper and suddenly we’re stuck inside. I’ve been WFH for a few years now and it has gotten quite a bit more crowded around my office these days. Even for a homebody like me, it was starting to be a little much and I was itching to just do something. A childhood friend mentioned he was meeting his family at a campground a few hours from here and so I immediately latched on to the invite and booked us last minute for the weekend. It felt good to just get out. A few weeks later, we got word that the kids wouldn’t be going back to school in the fall either. At this point, courts are closed. Schools are closed. I’m still WFH, so nothing changed there thankfully. Again, I’m getting restless to get out of this house even if it means taking the camper somewhere and having to do all that packing again. Because it’s August/Sept and the South, we opted to chase a little bit of a break in humidity.

That’s how we found ourselves for almost three weeks in TN “trying out longer trips”. Drew was doing school with the kids, I was still working full time, but if they are online why not online somewhere they can do other things? All the while, Drew is dropping more and more hints that he wants to do this full time and I just roll my eyes. I tell him, “let’s just see how several weeks go first,” thinking that there is no way this is going to work. About a week in and we’re in a routine and I start to notice that longer is actually easier. I can put stuff away and not feel like it’s a waste of time because I’m about to move it back out. I do some work outside because it’s not the surface of the sun in the mountains. I can get back to running again because I don’t have to wade through the air up there. Drew has now added even more youtube channels onto his list and the kids know their kids by name now. By the time we are set to leave, we aren’t really ready to leave. Drew and the kids start playing the “but what IF we do this full time, what would it take” game. “Wouldn’t it be cool if the kids are doing homework about rocks in the morning and then can walk outside and step into the Grand Canyon and see them in real life that afternoon?”

This game is pretty dangerous if you don’t think you’re actually on board yet. You’ll find yourself agreeing to check RVTrader for midbunk models that could work because your kids won’t actually sleep if they’re in the same room so school the next day will be a nightmare. You’ll also find your self driving all over the state to look at bigger trucks with more wheels in the back. Suddenly, you’ll find yourself in a bit of an out of body experience where you hear yourself saying “okay” and not quite sure who said that. You’ll remind yourself that you’re assuming a timetable of January, because “clearly it’ll take a while and be difficult to find the camper and the truck you want because THANKS COVID, supplies are pretty low” and there would be time for it all to blow over or get used to it,
Then one day you find the perfect camper model you can set your sights on. Within a week, RV Trader posts a deal you just can’t pass up if you’re going to do this. The truck you thought would be the easy part is actually a lot more elusive until out of the ‘blue’ one seems to just appear a few hours away (literally 8mins from said earlier childhood friend’s house). Then the check for the warranty cancellations on the old truck is almost exactly what it costs to transport the new camper here from TX. Pieces all seem to suddenly fall too perfectly into place, and you find yourself sitting here in September, watching boxes of books walk out of your house to their new home ( a moment of silence, please) and you’re listing furniture on FB marketplace.

How did we get here? Little seeds that have germinated for a very, very long time. Restless feet. A changing world that could easily have forced us into a shell within these four walls. Am I still anxious about all of this? Heck yes. I’m a planner. I’m type A with a capital A in bold and underlined. I’m stretching myself in ways I never thought I would already and we haven’t even left yet. It’s scary to make a jump like that, but I also know in my heart how great it will be for our kids. They will get experiences that many only ever dream about (who am I kidding, so will mom & dad). WiFi is so readily available nationwide now, that any excuse I have about school or work is no longer a problem. It will be good for me, too. If left to my own devices (and a book), I’m perfectly happy to not leave my couch. I hate seeing my kids sit in front of a TV and xBox for hours on end, but I can’t really fuss if I’m not giving them other options.

So here we are, scheduling painters and realtors, sitting down to capture all of this process from messy start to eventual finish one day. We still have family and commitments here, so we’ll be dipping in and out of NC for quite a while, but otherwise let’s get out there and see what this world has to offer.