That opened the door to a lot of conversations; which lead to today. But I'll get to today in a little bit. First lets start with once Ryan said it out loud I couldn't stop thinking and talking about it. He was concerned because usually its him that is jumping without looking. I'm usually the more lets plan it out, think about it, save for it, think of pros and cons- instead this time it was simple. We have to do this. We have to go. We have to try. We have to just leap. Even if we fail- even if we don't make it to half the places we want- we have to try. Ryan agreed but I'm guessing he thought I was having a moment and it would pass, but it didn't and it won't.
I started printing off things from the web- about Mt Rushmore. Then about Grand Canyon, and the Redwood Forest, potato's in Idaho, Yellowstone, the worlds biggest frying pan, the best places for BBQ in Texas... and yes I could keep going on and on. I'm pinteresting everything I can. I stop at AAA and grab as many free brochures as they will let one person take. Soon I notice Ryan starting to look at trailers for sale, ones he can pull and ask what our budget will be. I knew as he was googling trailers for sale that he was starting to let himself imagine the fun that we will have as a family.
I will say this there are many reasons this trip shouldn't have worked out-
Reason number one: we have school age kids. My daughter S is going into 1st grade and my other daughter L is ready for preschool. However I have always wanted to home school my children. Last year when S was getting ready for Kindergarten I had a job offer that would keep me busy over the winter so we decided to send her to public school. But I hated it. The drama, early mornings, the cost, the extra stuff she was learning, the crazy moms and their drama. Public school is just not for us. So yes I feel fantastic and proud to say I am homeschooling my children- and the amount they will learn on this trip is going to monumentally surpass anything the school could try. Also just for the record- if you disagree with homeschooling- if you want to debate with me about our choices- feel free to never come back to this blog- and defriend me on facebook. Because honestly I don't want to hear about your issues. Period.
My children missing to much school because of a long road trip across the USA- not a problem when you home school.
Reason number two this trip shouldn't have worked out: I should be pregnant right now. We had a devastating miscarriage in June. I was pregnant and now I'm not. So going for long road trips- not an issue anymore. I cant believe I'm even typing this but just for the sake of that one ignorant person out there- yes, I would rather be pregnant any day vs taking a road trip and no I didn't do anything in anyway to end this pregnancy for any reason. If you think that- seriously do not come back to this blog ever again.
Reason number three this trip shouldn't be possible: renters. We have fantastic renters that rent our house. They informed us they would be leaving in August and we knew that would make money tight. We wanted to try and sell the house but with this economy we were not looking forward to it being on the market. Anyways long story short our renters decided they were going to stay and not move away and we did the happy dance. Money no longer tight.
Reason number four: Vacation time with jobs. Most people I'm going to say 90% of people have jobs that they get limited vacation time. We work seasonally but opted to have our pay spread out through out the entire year. So we have from Mid October thou March season basically "off" work. Grant it there are still phone calls, billing, and some winter maintenance but mostly we are not working in the typical sense. While we are traveling we don't have to take time off work- or rush to get back. We have our winter season for ourselves.
Reason number five: Shit happens. So far we shit hasn't hit the fan. People die, bad news strikes, vehicles break down, your savings gets spent when your fridge decides to no longer stay cold. But as of right now we are shit free. Fingers crossed that we keep going with that.
Yes there are plenty more reason but those are the main ones. I really feel like we have moments in our life where we make a choice and it dramatically changes our story- our thumbprint if you will. Ryan could have not said what he did out loud that day, we could still be pregnant, I could be the type that would never consider homeschooling, our renters should and could have left for another place and money be tight, we could have "normal" jobs that wouldn't let you leave for months at a time BUT that's not our truth.
I firmly believe things fall in or out of place for a reason. If we are to scared to follow through because of the what ifs ,the chance of "failing" ,or because of concern about how others will react or say about us- then shame on us. We will regret that for the rest of our lives. But taking this opportunity and seeing where the road really takes us- there is no regret in that.
We are traveling across the USA as a family. To bring us together, to learn as much as we can together, This winter season in our thumbprints will help define what directions my children take in their lives. It will help us stay bonded as a family, as a married couple, and help us in our faith.
I plan to use this blog to keep a journal of our journey. To share with friends and family where we are and what we are learning. If you love and support us please follow along. If your reading this and finding yourself being judgemental of us- I'm sorry your in that place, but don't feel the need to keep reading. I will be honest. I will be blunt. I will be me. In the last few months I've realized that some people are just never going to like me- and they actually want for my marriage to fail- or want for my reasons to be happy to go away. Instead of be upset over this and trying to get them to like me I've decided to let them go. To separate myself from them and protect my children from their negative issues. Ryan and I are going to live our dream. We are going to be together as a family and teach our children values, love and respect. Misery loves company and we are not your guests.
To finish this first post I will say we have been searching for just the right trailer for our family. At first we thought we would take the car, sleep in a tent when we could and hotels when we couldn't. But then we thought about how nice it would be to have a trailer with a toilet to help avoid lots of bathroom stops while on the road. Then someone pointed out pop up trailers and tents were not allowed where we are planning to go because of the bears.
Bears. Yes, we forgot the bears. That helped us decide right there that we really need a hard back trailer. Because nothing ends a magic journey like bears sticking their heads in our tent looking for food.
We have been searching for weeks for just the right trailer for us. After a very frustrating few days I came home from our last camper dealership and went to bed. Mid afternoon. Just said screw it. Ryan woke me up and told me I would never believe what he found. In our very own office hanging on the bulletin board was a motor home for sale. This motorhome has been for sale for months and its picture hanging in our office and here it is in our price range, low mileage, looked beautiful. He called and set up an apt to look for it. We had our fingers crossed that it wasn't to good to be true.
Today we bought a motorhome. A beautiful, well maintained, low mileage, perfect for our family, in our budget, dream ideal motorhome.
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