Musings on the Mundane

"Sometimes it is the Mundane that awakens Wonder"

If the writer is not careful, travel blogs can resemble Christmas letters. You know the kind where you learn that “Son, John, graduated from Harvard summa cum laude while daughter, Jill, has been offered a million dollar modeling contract while completing her advanced degree in nuclear engineering. Meanwhile Dad and I were flying home from hiking in Nepal when we learned we had won the Power Ball.”

Butch and I are having a great adventure (for old folks) and are enjoying ourselves immensely, but it is not all fun and games. I want to share our excitement, wonder, and awe, but I also want to share how humble we feel to have this opportunity and how grateful we are to be able to take advantage of it. 

We have now been traveling in our 8’ x 24’ home for about 65 days and we have driven over 11,000 miles. That’s a lot of hours in the truck and not all of them are scenic are even comfortable. We have stayed in 30 campgrounds, some of them beautiful, others not so much. This type of trip is not like a cruise or a tour; we get to make our own plans and follow our own timeline, but we also have to take care of our own needs. There are no planned activities to fill every day. The mundane part of life goes on with visits to the Laundromat, grocery store, and Wal-Mart. 

The hardest part is choosing where to go and what to do from the immense amount of possibilities that are available. We do have a “Bucket List” of sorts and it includes re-visiting or visiting deeper some of the places we have been in the past. We also have a budget and we want to get the most bang for our buck. As I sit here looking out at a field of flowers with the Alaska Range in the background, I can look eastward and southward and feel the entire continent of North America stretching out before us. Between us and home (NC or FL) are thousands of miles of potential experiences.

Excuse my lapse into the philosophical. More travel news next time.