WOW!

Today is my final day of conventional employment. It has yet to truly sink in, that I stand at the peak of my journey, ready to begin the downhill voyage toward travel and the road. Not to say it will be an easy downhill because travel itself is filled with all kinds of obstacles and challenges. But it is the beginning.

After today we will begin our trial runs with the trailer, an opportunity to really test out the features, practice parking and towing, and getting any last minute repairs or maintenance completed. From our bridal shower we got many amazing gifts to be used for our trip and I can’t wait to try them out. Technology gets more and more amazing and through careful brainstorming we had registered for two essential pieces of equipment.

- The Brunton Inspire Portable Power Device

- The Brunton Explorer Foldable Solar Panel

These devices will be very helpful in ensuring that we will be able to power our devices in case of emergency or being in rural/backwoods locations where utilities will not be readily available. The Power Device can be charged from either the Solar Panel or also by our vehicle while driving and can charge several devices before needing another recharge. Also, since they are both from REI, should they prove to be unsatisfactory we can return them to try a different device or approach to our power needs. We are attempting to remain as minimal as possible regarding our power/electrical needs to make boon docking as comfortable as possible.

We'll let you know how they perform on our trial adventures!

So close!!

Time has flown by and there are moments I can't believe that in less than 3 months we will be liquidating our physical "home" items and taking off into the wild blue yonder. Are we insane?! Yes. But we love every minute of it. We're still far enough out that we've begun to consider just some general preparations that we need to be making. Tomorrow I plan to go to Schucks with my brother (very handy mechanical man he is) and pick up the plugs and sparks for the Expedition. It also will need a comprehensive visit to a mechanic to examine an oil leak that was reported at the last oil change. I'm tempted to switch the oil to synthetic but it depends mostly on whether the Expedition does in fact burn/leak oil. It will also need a new windshield before we go. We've also begun to investigate insurance for the trailer and have been very pleasantly surprised by the affordable cost. Looking forward to buying that and getting squared away for that. Next research the vehicle insurance through the same company, see if we can get a cheaper rate for both. One thing I'm really looking forward to buying is a new foam mattress for the trailer bed. And to take the trailer on a psuedo camping trip! We are hoping to take several of these before we leave to hopefully shake loose any potential problems before we get too far out on our journey. Beyond all the nuts-and-bolts planning that goes into something like this, I find myself struggling with the concept of settling into a lifestyle where I literally will not have to work. When I say work I mean work in the traditional sense. I will continue to do website content and writing online for some additional cash flow but no longer will I be anchored to a schedule that threatens to beat the resilency out of me with each passing day. Not that I don't like my current employment because I actually do very much -- but the grind has felt aptly named. Plus, I won't be working a 2nd and 3rd job... basically, having my life revolve around something other than work is going to be an amazing concept. Spending the past year doing just that has robbed me of certain nuances in my life that I look forward to commiting to with new enthusiasm. Especially with Whitney and Spike, the development of our own family :)

Wow, 110 days!

It's amazing to think about how quickly time is dripping by now that we have passed the 6 month countdown. We're already early into March and before we know it'll be April, May, and then DA DA -- JUNE! Of course, planning for the wedding is going to speed up the next couple months considerably as we begin to make preparations and take care of all the "decision making" of details.

I have a tendency to "future trip" and I also really enjoy making house plans. While I do not possess any CAD abilities to draft actual blueprints, I do use a cool program called SmartDraw to create house layouts with basic dimensions. It has the ability do electrical and plumbing schematics, as well as irrigation systems but I don't know enough about that to effectively use them. BUT! I have worked long and hard on several designs for our future "homestead"which will utilize alternative building supplies such as tire bales, straw bale, even shipping containers! Experimenting and researching the benefits and deficiencies of the building materials has been an ongoing process -- and will continue -- but I have drafted a house layout that we are definitely liking as a real potential for our dream homestead. It also has the ability to be built in phases which is important when you are "paying as you go," which we also intend to do to avoid the ridiculous black hole of mortgages, interest, and big banks. It takes longer and more work but when you consider that the savings can average at well over $100,000.... well, bring it!

Click on the thumbnail to open it in Flickr.

I'll outline the details of the house plan:

A 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom home with a semi-attached 2 car garage with above 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment.

The garage apartment will be constructed from a 2x2 structure of shipping containers which will be 16 x 40 space of two floors. On the bottom floor is a two-car garage and a workshop which can be used for processing pet food as part of our raw food business plan. This can also be built as phase one, creating a living space and workspace while working on the main structure. The shipping container model also will make it relatively quick to construct and will make an excellent guest house space. Or for our kids when they come home from college during the summers.

The main house has three bedrooms featuring two master suites and a half bath for guests. There's a library/office room for our love of massive quantities of books. We would also like to have a "homestead library" for those in the community who want to check out books about alternative building, canning, sustainable living, etc. A unique aspect of the rooms are the murphy beds. If we intend on using straw bales and/or tires for our interior walls, they are deep enough to contain recessed beds -- also known as murphy beds. This is an attractive way to store the beds and create more space in the rooms.

Another special feature that we are especially passionate about are built-in fish tanks. I've featured a couple of them in the house. Whitney and I both love fish and they create a calming atmosphere in any situation.

The house also has a walk-in pantry, walk-in storage closet, and a utility room. There's a formal dining room for entertaining and an upstairs loft. The loft features two game tables (we love pool) and another murphy bed for guests.

Okay so basically this is a big ass house but it has everything we could possibly want and hey, I like to shoot big and for the ideal!

DUN DUN DUN! THE TRAILER!!!!!!

Yes, that's right. After long awaiting, scouring craigslist, having trailers sold out from under us -- we have finally found the one. And it is even better than we had both hoped. It has everything we need and even included something we had never expected to find in the Pacific Northwest: an air conditioner.

Okay, enough talk! We would like to introduce our 1968 Aladdin Trailer! YEAH BABY!

The EXCELLENT:

• A pristine kitchen that looks like it has hardly been used. The original propane stove unit WORKS and the whole look is fabulous. It's also in a lovely green which I'm quite fond of in its retro-charm way.

• LOTS of windows and light! It's hard to see in the picture because the trailer is in the shade, but the trailer is actually very bright inside. All the windows also have curtains in excellent condition.

• Has a double bed. This may not sound like much but MOST of the tiny trailers we looked at featured twin size bunks. This one boasts TWO full size bunk beds (the top one we will convert into shelving and storage space because its really meant for kids or very small adults.)

• An air conditioner. Pshaw! You might say, but a big concern of mine is our love child, Spike. There are some places that we may not wish to take him or are unable to for whatever reason which means leaving him in the trailer. Now, we plan on traveling some hot locations especially in the summer so I have long fretted about how to do this without suffocating Spike in a hot tin can of a trailer. Voila! This trailer has an after market air conditioner installed by the original owner.

• Speaking of owners, we bought this from the second owner who had lived in it for 3 weeks. The original owner was diagnosed with throat cancer and upgraded to a luxurious model to travel with in his remaining days. This trailer has not seen a lot of hands and there has been obvious care taken in its lifetime.

• Came with two spare tires in good condition and the jacks.

• We bought it for less than my tax return was and for the price we had capped ourselves at!

The LESS EXCELLENT:

• There is a small corner on the bottom bunk where it appears something was spilled. It doesn't appear to be an external water leak but it has rippled some of the paneling in the corner and stained the bottom bunk upholstery.

• The upholstery is original and old. The bottom bunk has a rip in the fabric and a stain. The rest of the upholstery is in good condition but we think we are going to reupholster all the cushions inside so they are matching and will have better wear on the trip.

• The vintage nature of this trailer has made finding an owner's manual online VERY DIFFICULT! If anyone knows where I can find one, let me know! All of the appliances come with their original owner's manuals but there isn't one for the trailer itself. As they are no longer made and the manufacturer has long since gone under, it's been a difficult search.

And there you have it! The dream is beginning. Everything feels a little more real now that we have our future home sitting in our driveway. It makes it difficult not to just get in and take off tomorrow, leaving our cares behind. But hey, we got things to do --

WE HAVE A WEDDING TO PLAN!

Tentative trip plans

June 27th, 2011
DEPARTURE! YAY! Spend a week or two traveling the Olympia peninsula. There are so many beautiful places to visit and see right in our own backyard! This will also give us time to have last-minute visits with friends and family before we embark on a more extended leave.

Some places to cover here are:
The Hoh Rainforest
Port Townsend and surrounding
Crescent Lake
La Push Reservation
Victoria Island


Mid July, 2011
Here’s where we start to venture out of our comfort zone, though not too far since there are still some things to check out in the greater Washington state. Part of this will just be on-our-way visitation so I don’t think longer than a week will be spent doing this particular exploring.

We’re going to check out:
Leavenworth
Eastern Washington in general (I’ve never been there!)


End of July, 2011
Now we’re really getting interesting. We’re going to break into Idaho at this point and timelines are going to get fuzzy. After all, we have no end goal in sight so we can play most of this by ear and eye. We might just pass through the handle of Idaho, making our way into Montana for summer fun. We’ll make a pass back through the rest of Idaho later.

Here we’ll see:
Priest Lake
Silverwood Theme Park
Kanatsu National Park


Early August, 2011
So one of our first stops once we’re in Montana is going to be Missoula. We have talked at length about this being a potential place for permanent relocation after our traveling so I hope to spend some time checking out all it has to offer. There’s several National Forests and we’ll resist the urge to go straight to Yellowstone. It’d be best to get to the Dakotas before their cold weather starts.

Places to see:
Missoula
Lolo National Forest
Deerlodge National Forest
Helena National Forest
Lewis and Clark National Forest
Bozeman
Billings


Mid-August, 2011
I think we’ll press on through the Dakotas for the next two or three weeks. First traveling through North Dakota and then looping through South Dakota before swinging back around to finish off the summer at Yellowstone.

North Dakota will have:
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Red Hills
Devil’s Lake
Dakota Dinosaur Museum
Scandinavian Heritage Park

In South Dakota we’ll see:
The Badlands
Mount Rushmore
The Corn Exchange restaurant
Crazy Horse Memorial
Custer State Park


Late August, 2011
It’s time for Yellowstone! There are many awesome places to see and stay in the park. Plenty of places to spend a lot of time in. We wanted to budget at least 2 weeks to see the entire park. We will also explore some other places in Wyoming as well.

Places to check out:
Grand Teton National Park
Yellowstone National Park


Mid September - February, 2012
Here we’ll have to start making a dive south in preparation for the winter months. We will of course take the scenic route. Not sure if we’ll be swinging through Southern Idaho and Oregon or go further south through Utah and Nevada. Driving down California, we’ll take the opportunity to visit my family which is scattered throughout. The winter will be a good time to travel through the southern states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico itself.

Eating on the road...

So I've been giving a lot of thought as to what kind of "diet" or foodies Whitney and I will be dedicating to for our trip. As we are not going to be getting a fancy ZOMG trailer, our cooking means will be modest and there will be a definite simplification in our culinary journeys (at least inside our trailer.)

I have become very interested in something called the "Primal Blueprint" which is an diet based upon the "hunter/gatherer" lifestyle that many of our ancestors lived. At first glimpse the website looked like a hella gimmicky "melt fat away TODAY!" kind of thing but upon reading, I became very interested in the philosophy. Plus, tons of the info is available for free and his e-book AND user-compiled recipe book being free is a big plus. The thing I like most about it is it embraces a more holistic approach to diet, exercise, and life in general. Talks a lot about how busting your ass in the gym is not the way to health. Plus he wears vibrams in his how-to videos and has a whole section on sprinting bare foot! When someone tells me that running across grass barefoot is part of excellent health, that makes me happy. Anyway, I won't wax eternal here but if you're interested check it out. (www.marksdailyapple.com) The food choices would also be really good for on-the-road living and incorporates all my favorite foods.

The year I lost my mind....

So I have used the phrase "the year I lost my mind" but what does that really mean? It has been a very difficult, challenging, and trying year for me even though it has been filled with some good things. I have had to grapple with what my life means now that I am out of school. It was a sad realization that I had no other real concrete goals for myself, that I really didn't even know myself. The five years I spent pursuing my Undergraduate education had given me tools, experiences, and exposure to many amazing things but I had really never taken the time to piece it all together -- to figure out who I really was and what kind of person I wanted to be. More often than not I found myself diving into one project and then another, stuffing my brain with as much activity as possible so I would never be forced to think about the more difficult questions at hand. And in between, if I DID somehow end up with some down time, I drank. I drank a lot and I smoked a lot of cigarettes and I partied. Anything to distract myself from the hollow emptiness I felt growing the closer I got to graduating.

Post graduation and life took a huge "reality crap" on me. I met the person my best friend REALLY was and in essence lost her, struggled with finances, and dealt with the declining mental health of my mother and being a sole caregiver. This all in the midst of the most crippling depression I have felt in a really long time. I smiled at my graduation because I knew I was supposed to -- but I have never felt LESS accomplished than I did in that moment. My life was now a blur shadowed with feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness. I had reached the peak of ultimate burn out.

But I have managed to do some productive things this year in spite of all the challenges.
- I quit smoking, for good this time
- I quit drinking
- I started going to a therapist
- I got a job with good benefits
- I'm working on improving my physical health
- I'm making plans and setting goals
- I'm planning our wedding and future travels

All the positive and negative things that have happened in this year I feel are stepping stones in the direction of self-improvement and the development of the person I ultimately want to be. All my life I have lived in the shadow of my own turbulent emotions and this year and the next are the times I learn to face my demons and best of all, overcome them.