A Change of Plans

I’m lying here in a hotel room in Hays, Kansas, after yet another sleep-deprived night spent trying to keep Loki quiet. After three days on the road, we have discovered a few things about ourselves. The biggest realization is an overwhelming sense of relief that we made a last minute change of plans and did…

That Damn Cat

We’d been planning our Great Adventure to Mexico for two years now, but as the departure date quickly approached, we realized that there were a lot of holes in those plans, or assumptions made not based on fact, or decisions made based completely on a belief that everything would be okay. I’d been feeling less…

Hurry Up and… Wait?

Summer is coming to a close and while it seems that everything around us is moving at a dizzyingly speed, we’re experiencing a calm. We’ve packed pretty much everything we can at this point and now we’re just waiting as most of our next steps require a solid move-out date.

Home

“So what makes a place home?” I asked my Darling. “What turns a place from an empty house or apartment into a home?”

Goodbye, Serenity

I know most people think it’s silly to get emotionally attached to a car. I would tend to agree but for the simple fact that for whatever reason, that particular car had become more than a mode of transportation for me. She was a friend, but now it was time to say goodbye.

The Light At the End Of the Tunnel

While this is a story of two people on their own adventure, it’s important to realize that we had some strong reasons for leaving the U.S. Hate crimes and terror attacks within our borders were up, while a fast-moving and seemingly deliberate war by the Federal government against its citizens was in full force. In short, the country was quickly becoming a hateful, ugly place to live.

You Can’t Bring Firearms into Mexico

Yesterday marked a milestone – we told the first of our family about our great plans and simultaneously did our first real bit of downsizing – Mark sold one of his guns to his brother and in doing so, we broke the news of our upcoming departure. It also marked another first for me: I fired my Darling’s AR-15.

Our Doppelganger Travelers

It’s said that there’s no such thing as an original idea anymore. Perhaps that’s true. I certainly found this out first hand the other day while doing a random search on the Internet. I happened on a story about a middle-aged couple who sold their house, piled everything (including their dogs) into a cargo van and took off to travel around Mexico…

Fear

One of  the real drawbacks to planning a major life change more than a year in the future, is that you have a lot of time to reflect on the decision and talk yourself out of whatever you are planning to do.

Downsizing

Downsizing: the very word strikes fear in most people. No matter what the situation, the term indicates the beginning of the end of a way of life. We hear it when older couples start thinking about giving up the trappings of a well-appointed life in order to prepare for the eventuality of death.