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Living on the road, visiting new places and seeing new things all the time has been a wonderful experience. But with that comes a whole lot of “new”… new roads, new scenery, new grocery stores, new rules and routines… new opportunities and challenges. Every time we get to a new stop on our trip, there are a lot of things we have to figure out.

Psychologists say that there are a finite number of decisions a person can make each day before their decision-making abilities ebb and finding yourself in a state of analysis paralysis.

When you have a solid home base and you need to get your car fixed, you call the local shop – you know the one you have been going to for years – make an appointment and take your car in to get it fixed.

When we had to take the truck in to get it fixed this week, we had to:

1. Find dealers that can service the part we needed to get fixed
2. Research good versus bad and make a decision on which shop to go to
3. Call and beg to get an appointment ASAP (since we are only going to be here for another week)
4. Try to figure out where the shop is
5. Get the appointment, get to the shop
6. Worry that I got shafted, paid too much, or that the repair will last, since we are moving on and can’t “bring it back” if something goes wrong

In this case, we also had to contact the manufacturer and submit a warranty claim and have them send us new parts. So then we had to figure out where to send the parts (no mailing address), how long will they take to get here (before we leave??) and make sure the shop can install the replacement before we head out of town. If they can’t… its back to Step 1 in the next city.

Something as simple as trying to watch Monday Night Football turns into a major decision tree – campground doesn’t get cable? Can we get it on the internet? Is the WiFi good enough? If we have to use cell do we have enough data left (or else cha-ching $$)? Amazon Prime has Thursday night football but not Monday nights. YouTube Live has Monday but not Thursday. Sunday night doesn’t work at the campground either because we can’t get NBC with the trailer antenna. And the scenario changes every single time we move.

At home, you turn on the TV, sit on the couch and watch the game.

Every little decision just adds up… and just when you “expect” that things will go a certain way, they don’t and you have to start all over again.

I’m not a person who has ever really embraced uncertainty, so it can be draining and incredibly frustrating at times. I guess you have to take the good with the bad – the excitement of new places and new adventures versus having to figure it all out all over again at every new stop – just one of those unintended consequences that comes with the territory.

It’s hard to believe that today marks the halfway point in our year-long adventure. Exactly six months ago we closed on the sale of the house, did our final cleanup, packed the trailer and headed to Charlottesville for our first night as full-time travelers.

As we’ve been approaching this milestone, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what reaching the halfway point means: Is it about what we’ve learned? The experiences we’ve had? The people we’ve met? The things that have gone wrong… or the things that have gone right? I’d love to say that I’ve come up with some great profound lesson in this – but if I did I’d most certainly be lying.

For me, it is always difficult to see the big-picture meaning around a time or an event while in the midst of it. Be it an adventure, a vacation, having met someone, starting a new job… it’s kind of like when I get in a discussion or an argument with someone. I’m not someone who is a good debater on the spot – but give me some time to think on it and I’ll come up with a hundred arguments.

So instead, here are some thoughts and observations, on the last six months… in no particular order:

Are Darryl and I still on speaking terms? Believe it or not, this is actually the question I have been asked most often whilst on this trip! Probably asked in jest, but with genuine curiosity as well. Yes, even after six months of sharing only 160 square feet and being together nearly 24/7 for the majority of the time we are still getting along! Is our relationship stronger? I’m not sure I would say that – we have always been a pretty tight couple. Has our relationship changed? Probably – but I can’t pinpoint any particular changes at this point. It has been a LOT of closeness… and we have definitely had our moments along the way. But I think Darryl would agree that after fifteen years of marriage, and six months in to this trip, we’re in pretty good shape.

This lifestyle can get lonely at times. It is tough to meet people when you are only spending a day or two in one place, and even when you do meet folks it can be hard to make a real connection. That said, our summer in Alaska was absolutely filled with friends and family (because they really are our Alaska family!), and we have been very fortunate to have met some wonderful people along the way so far. For the next few months we’ll be staying in the same places for longer and we’ll be seeing the kids for Thanksgiving and Christmas – which we are really looking forward to!

This lifestyle can also be stressful – just in different ways than your typical household stress. Finding places to stay every night where Darryl has the connectivity he needs to work has been challenging at times. After a lot of trial and error, we’ve finally gotten all of the right equipment – we think – and now that we are in areas that are closer to bigger cities cell service is less of a challenge. And God Bless Starbucks… high speed internet AND Pumpkin Spice Lattes – SCORE! It is still stressful heading into a new camp every night – but once we know we’re ok for work at the campsite (or there is a Starbucks fairly close by) we can relax.

We knew that we would have to adjust our “master schedule” at times – and as we’ve gotten further into the trip, we’ve realized how deviating from the plan has resulted in some of the best experiences of the trip. In escaping the Montana wildfires, we ended up spending three wonderful weeks in Moab. Because we were tired of all the rain on the Oregon Coast, we headed south earlier than we planned and have really able to take our time through the Redwoods which has been absolutely amazing.

Equipment-wise, we would have brought less “stuff” – less clothing, fewer shoes, and left the kayaks at home (we have yet to put them in the water). We would have brought the roof-top tent to use while we were in Alaska and Moab. But generally-speaking we are pretty pleased with our choices and our planning.

So I guess the next question is, “Are we going to keep going?” Most definitely. Are we any closer to knowing where we want to settle at the end of the adventure? Not at all… Knowing what we know now, would we do it again? Absolutely.

Here’s to the next six months… We can’t wait to see what it brings!

In all the years I’ve traveled for work, there are a few places I missed along the way, and Oregon is one of them. Darryl has never been to Oregon either, so it was a must-stop during our adventure.

It certainly hasn’t failed to impress.

We have been here for a few weeks now, and the Oregon coast is simply one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. The state parks here are amazing – the parks we have been to have been the best of our entire trip so far. Clean, well-tended, and most with electrical and water hookups! Bonus!

Darryl and I both love the mountains, but one of the amazing things about this area is that you get BOTH the mountains and the beach all in one! It has been great to have the beach within a short walk so we can get out of the trailer and get a good walk in just about every day. The cook in me is also very happy that we’ve been able to find some outstanding fish markets selling everything from Chinook (King) salmon, tuna, cod, shrimp… all locally-caught of course.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most on this trip is the opportunity to shop and eat local. It takes a little more effort to find the “off the beaten path” gems, but the Internet (Yelp) makes it much easier than it used to be, and the amazing meals we’ve had along the way have been totally worth it.

And then there is the beer…

Northern California is known for its wine, and you could argue that Oregon is equally well-known for its beer. As we have driven down the coast, every little beach town seems to have at least a half-dozen hometown brew pubs making some amazing beer. Back in Virginia, when you go to even the largest brew pubs you might have six or seven beers to choose from. Here each brewery seems to have dozens – the variety is pretty incredible and it is amazing to think that all of these small businesses are putting out this much beer!

One of the reasons for making this trip is to explore places we might want to make our long-term home – and I believe Oregon has definitely made the short list. Now if we could just do something about the high tax rate and all of the rain!

Most of the trails in Arches National Park are well-marked and open for self-navigation. But there is one very cool section of the park that is restricted to ranger-led tours and a limited number of back-country hiking permits every day – it is called the Fiery Furnace.

Don’t the formations look like little furnace chimneys?

One of the reasons access is limited to this area is to minimize human impact to the fragile environment – but the other reason is that it is a freaking maze back here!

 

There are secret canyons, surprise arches, amazing viewpoints, and some very cool scrambling throughout the hike.

There were 14 people in our group on the three-hour hike. It was very cool to learn that eight of the hikers were a part of what they called the “Baby Group” – they had all been friends since the births of their first children 35 years ago and they vacation together every few years.  How cool is that?

Even though we did this hike the last time we were here we knew we wanted to take it again this trip.  Because of staffing limitations they are down to one hike per day and we had to sign up almost a week in advance!  But it was well worth it – such an amazing landscape and a terrific way to spend the morning!