Two states in five days!

I wrote this post about a month ago and forgot to publish it, life on the road is hectic and complicated and my thoughts are jumbled, but I'm going to publish this now anyways because I want to remember what this journey has been like. I am going to try to be better about posting along the way, but here was my first post on the road:

I can't quite explain the freedom that comes with living on the road. While we had spent months living in our RV, it wasn't until we hit the road and starting traveling that the reality of our new lifestyle really set in.  After traveling to see family and friends in Boise, we continued on, and it was so strange not to be turning around and heading back to our hometown in Oregon. It first felt like we were on a trip, like many we had taken for the weekend and soon we would be going back to our life at home. But instead, we headed east, and we kept on driving east, going places that I had never been and pulling into places for the night that I had never even heard of. That's when I knew that we were on the open road and that our journey ahead had really begun. Of course it had begun long ago in our hearts and in our minds but now it was actually happening and like most things for me, the reality of it didn't really hit me until we arrived in Yellowstone. 

The enormity of driving across the United States, and then back to Oregon and then across again, and then back again, is a great undertaking. One state at a time we're traveling and instead of flying over states and arriving at a far off destination, we are taking the long and scenic route, taking in the sights and the sounds of each new place. I have a greater appreciation for travel because of the work that it takes as well. The planning and the foresight that we have to have is immense at times and overwhelming at other times. The other day we were grocery shopping in 100 degree weather and we hadn't eaten lunch on time and we were all so tired. Then this lady walked up to us in our RV and went on for 20 minutes about the things we needed to buy for our RV because she was a full-timer and she new everything. She went on and on and finally I left the rig to start our grocery shopping because that had to happen if we were going to eat lunch that day. Then halfway through the shopping, our kids ventured into the store with my husband and "helped" me. By the time I got to the check-out counter, the checker asked me, "How are you?" a very simple question asked by all checkers at all grocery stores, and I couldn't even look her in the eye or respond. I thought I would probably just start crying right there and so I hid behind my mask and looking for my debit card and made small talk. Finally she looked at me and said, "I have three boys too, 26, 24 and 21.". Then I eased up a bit and felt maybe she could relate. But then, I thought, she has no idea what we are going through right now. But, she told me that she had RVed around several states with other moms and kids, thirteen of them in all, so I guess I was wrong, she did know what this was like. Somehow connecting with her in that moment helped me to not feel so alone and so overwhelmed, and of course eating lunch finally helped too.

So, even simple things like grocery shopping and dumping your trash become exceedingly complicated. Just pulling into the grocery store is an ordeal! In Idaho I was driving along and all the sudden I saw flashing lights and then someone flagging me down. I had finally gotten to a nice speed of 65 mph and I had to slam on my breaks because who flags someone down int he middle of the road?! It turns out it was because there was an extra wide truck coming and I needed to yield to him so that we didn't collide. Another thing that would have probably been no big deal, but driving a 31' rig and pulling another 10' of a tow car gets really complicated and scary and one wrong move and we total our house!

Here's a picture from our first Harvest Host. That's where we landed after driving through Boise. It was a beautiful farm with really generous hosts and I felt such gratefulness at staying here. The sunset and the sunrise were amazing!