Inspiration

I am feeling inspired or compelled to write about our ongoing goal of life on the road with the kids. Recently, I began to feel a little scared of taking our kids, 4 and 2, out for a few years, away from what they know and into a constantly changing lifestyle with a shifting community. But, as if to assuage my fears, my sister in law sent a book along with boxes of wonderful hand me downs for our 4-year-old daughter. That book was written by David Cohen and is titled One Year Off… and is a wonderful account of one family’s decision to leave everything behind and travel the world for a year. They did this with a 9, 6 and 2 year old and were successful overall, but not without some hiccups and risks here and there, as would be expected. Wonderfully, the children adapted to life on the road more easily than did the parents. We are so connected to our daily lives in our towns, workplaces and homes and that structure and routine has provided stability throughout our lives leaving not much to the unknown. Children are familiar with this routine and structure, but are also much more “trainable” and open to new experiences in life without bringing their preconceived notions to the table.

Reading this book gives new urgency to our quest and my determination to see it through. In one chapter the author describes a fleeting glimpse of his daughter’s childhood and sees her coming transition into adolescence. Our own children change and grow so rapidly and to be able to stop the craziness of modern life and turn to the simplicity of enjoying each other in the time that we have right now is so enticing for me. I so want to savor each and every moment and have a chance to see the world new through their eyes.

Even though we have not kept an active journal on our progress, we have in fact progressed. We have been to a couple of RV shows and Jeff never fails to read the latest review of the newest tow vehicles and residential RV’s available. He’s narrowed it down to two trucks and one 5^th wheel in particular - I’ll leave the details of the vehicles for him to write.

At any rate, our next step is to really crunch some numbers and figure out what our budgets are going to look like. In the mean time we can dream about where we’d like to go on our journey. There are so many great places to see and go. One idea that has surfaced is to try to spend summers volunteering in National Parks with the hopes that will help get either one or both of us a stable job to ease our landing back into a “normal” lifestyle.

Well, I can at least begin a list with some obvious favorite places and organizations we’d like to see and experience:

Yellowstone

Glacier

Joshua Tree

Alaska

Any beach anywhere it is warm for as long as we can stay there!

Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Ventana Wilderness Sanctuary, California

Peregrine Falcon Fund, Idaho

Oceanic Preservation Society, Colorado

Northwest Territory

Vermont

The Adirondacks

Big Apple Circus

It is easy to see that this list will quickly outgrow the time we are giving ourselves. It will be a challenge to give each and every place the time we will need to really live it and get to know it and the people who live there. The great thing about this trip will be its spontaneous nature – if we like a place we stay, if not we move on!