Dear Friend,
My family and I are planning a cross-continent North American excursion in an RV. Yes, all six of us, plus possibly a friend or two once in a while, will be marching like Sherman’s army across the beaches, hills, mountains, corn fields, and corn fields, and corn fields…oh well, you get the picture.
Why would I, in fact, why would any sane human being, drag four active kids and my dear wife into such a cramped experience of excitement, frustration, agony, smells, whines, and discovery as that?
Well, it’s certainly possible that I am not a sane human being. However, in my weak mind I got the idea that parents have a very small window of time to share with their children while those children are still open to sharing discovery with us.
As teens, kids are already breaking free of parental domination and want to emphasize and discover their own style of living. My kids are aged five through eleven. I think perhaps that if I don’t do this now, it will never happen.
To raise some quick cash, my wife and I decided to dump a “valuable” piece of real estate we have held for some time. I say dump because the Realtor says it’s worth about a third less than it was just a few years ago. That’s a big hit. Perhaps we should just hold onto it until the market improves? That would be the smart financial move. However, if we always do the right thing financially, we’ll have a big bank account and an equally big hole in our heart where our kids used to live.
We have a small trailer for quick excursions, but this time we are going to bite the bullet and aim for a big motorhome. The good news is that, with the economy, these things can be bought new for up to 40% off list price. So we plan to fly to a distant city where there is lots of inventory, and perhaps start our journey from there.
All of our kids are way ahead in academics, so I’m not worried about them missing school. And I have about a dozen different homeschooling programs that I can use with them if I think they need to be punished a bit. ;-))
So, once we take care of some details regarding the real estate and pack up our home-based business, I’ll be blogging and tweeting from the freeway.
Don’t get me wrong. We still plan to travel all over the world and experience exotic things as a family. However, the RV is a great way to start. If you don’t have one, or have definite and negative perceptions of the RV experience, try renting the movie, “RV,” starring Robin Williams, this weekend. It’s realy funny, and it does a great job of addressing what RV life can be as well as busting some of the old stereotypes that have traditionally gone along with the RV lifestyle.
I’ll talk more about this later. I plan to demonstrate with descriptions of my own family’s actions, as well as with words, at least some of the possible lifestyle options and experiences that any family can live if you have the balls to try them.
As always, all the best,
Hugh
