Celebrate!

Dear Friend,

We Did It!

Tonight we completed a circumnavigation of North America by RV when we arrived at the campground in Cleburne, Texas, where our journey began this past June.

It’s been a long road, and it was fantastic!  In fact, I do not want to leave my crowded little home.  Because it is home.  My family is here.  We have everything that we need.  What else really matters?  (OK, some privacy would be nice).

Tomorrow we head to Virginia in a rented 12-passenger van, loaded with us and souvenirs that we picked up along the way.  The Warrior stays here to get patched up and ready for our post-holiday travel leg.

Once back in Virginia it’s catching up on doctors appointments, Christmas shopping, and all that stuff.  Woopie! 😐

Oh well, it’ll be fun to see some of the folks that we left back home.

‘Til later,

Hugh

Is It All Worth It?

Dear Friend,

When a family travels together, parenting is a 24/7 job.

I suspect that this one factor is a big stumbling block for many parents who might otherwise step out into a more creative lifestyle with their family.

Let’s face it.  A lot of schools may not be great, but they do provide a convenient babysitting service for us and we feel no guilt about it.  We don’t have to make excuses to relatives and neighbors about why our kids are not in school.  They are right where everyone else expects them to be, for better or for worse.  And with school buses, the babysitter even provides door-to-door service.

More adventurous families often homeschool by necessity.  So they find themselves with the added responsibilities of being a full time parent, a part time teacher, and constant defender and justifier of their chosen lifestyle.

So, does beginning an adventure with your family mean that you never get to take off your parent hat?  That there are no breaks from your responsibilities as a parent?  Plus you take on many more?

And what about adult privacy?  How can you live a normal adult life with your partner when the kids are always a few feet away?  How will your marriage survive?

And why would anyone intentionally subject themselves to this kind of continuous stress?  Isn’t adventure supposed to be fun?  Is our culture so built around the conventional lifestyle that trying to live differently is just not worth the trouble?

A lot of questions.  I am sure that you realize by now that I have chosen my lifestyle despite the potential difficulties that it introduces.

I have found that my life feels healthier, and more natural to me now.  Issues that I thought would be a big problem in the beginning seem much less so now.

Yes, there are real challenges that enter your life when you choose to live differently than most.  But they can all be solved if you and your partner can be flexible and creative.  So don’t let your fears turn you away from your dreams.

You have to live the life that your were always meant to live.  To live otherwise is to be sort of dead inside.  If your natural lifestyle requires that you be different from most folks, just do it.

If you are afraid to be the true you, then you haven’t really lived yet.  So what are you waiting for?  Your life is waiting.

All the best,

Hugh

Mexico

Dear Friend,

At this point in our journey, we have visited the vast majority of US States and many Canadian Provinces.

Although there are several more places we want to visit in the US and Canada, the truth is that the next logical travel target for our family to visit is Mexico (and possibly points south).

When you talk to folks north of the Rio Grande these days, a lot of them will express doubts about going south.  They will tell you that you will need a 4 x 4 vehicle because the roads are so bad.  They will tell you that poor people will storm your vehicle (and possibly rob you) when you cross the border.  If you drive a nice car or RV, you are a big bright target for Mexican criminal gangs who roam the highways and who own the police.

And don’t even think about heading farther south, beyond Mexico.  Civil wars, domestic turmoil, and non-existent infrastructure mean that you’d better travel with armed guides and in a jungle-approved Land Rover, complete with snorkel device for crossing roads where bridges simply don’t exist.

Now, if you are a young adventure junkie, this probably sounds like fun.  But if you are a housewife with four little ones and a husband who can’t even fix his own shoe laces, the thought of going south of the border under these conditions does not generate a positive vibe.  It certainly doesn’t sound fun.

One of the challenges that you face when you travel via RV is that, generally speaking, you are confined to traveling to those places that you can actually reach by road.  True, you can load your RV on a ship and start a journey overseas.  But that can be quite expensive.  And many possible destinations, such as Europe, have small roads and low overpasses where a large RV like ours just won’t work well.

So what do we do?

We are nearing the end of this leg of our current North American journey.  Within a few days we will be in the Ft. Worth, Texas area, where we have an appointment with the service department at the dealer where we purchased the Warrior about 12,000 miles ago.

Because they will need several weeks to take care of all of the stuff that we have shaken apart, we will be renting a minivan and toting all of our souveniers (plus the kids) back to Virginia, where we will spend the Holidays with family.

Come January our plan is to drive our Jeep back to Texas, where we will purchase a “dingy” towing rig and tow the Jeep behind the Warrior for the remainder of the southern US portion of our journey.

I figured that we could mull over our thoughts about whether we should travel farther south or not after we get back home.

But wouldn’t you know it, something happened today that woke me up a bit, and challenged my thought process regarding Lain American travel via road.

I stopped by Twitter.com today to see how everyone was doing, and ran into a guy named John who runs a website called FamilyonBikes.org.

Apparently John, his wife Nancy, and their two young twin boys, Davy and Daryl, are an ordinary American family that just happens to be bicycling from Alaska to southern Argentina.

Yes.  Bicycling.

Alaska to Argentina.

Makes my concerns about driving the Warrior south sound kinda wimpy, doesn’t it?

When they complete their journey, their sons will be the youngest people ever to cycle the Pan-American Highway.  And they expect that fact to be certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.

By the way, now you know one reason that I hang out on Twitter – you meet some amazing people!

Hearing from John really woke me up.  I asked him about his experiences, especially in some of those areas that everyone seems to be worried about.  He said that the experience has been fantastic (except for a painful ingrown toenail, but that’s another matter).

Current, John, Nancy and the kids are in Ecuador, heading south.  I wish them the best of luck.  I am familiar with the part of the world that they are now entering and am sure that they will be just fine.

Sometimes, when you have a question, the world just reaches out and answers it.  You just have to be listening.

So, will we be heading south in the near future?  That is yet to be decided.  The Summer of 2010 looks to be a busy time, with a UK trip and RV travel to central Canada current in the planning stages.

But it sure sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Of course, there is still the matter of Mrs. DeBurgh.  😉

Oh well.  All the best,

Hugh

Ahhhhh! Splat! Ewwwww...

Dear Friend,

My kids have been complaining about the Internet filters we put on our PCs to prevent them from accessing inappropriate content.

My oldest is quite the crusader and may just be a budding Civil Rights lawyer.

Nevertheless, these things are necessary.

In protest, they have changed the background on one of our laptops to an image of a cartoon with a circle and slash over it, the image that they see indicating that inappropriate content was being accessed.

They insist that these filters block everything, even really uber sites such as Road Kill Bunny.  I suggested that, perhaps, the word “kill” in the title may have had something to do with it?

Anyway, for now, counsel has busied himself with other matters.  I do expect more protests over this issue in the near future.

Talk to you soon,

Hugh

Trinity Nuclear Test, 1945

Dear Friend,

Tonight I watched a documentary video with two of my kids.  It was all about the development of nuclear weapons here in New Mexico.

We are currently staying in Alamogordo, New Mexico, near the “Trinity” site, where the first nuclear detonation on Earth occurred in 1945, as part of the US Government’s Manhattan Project.

We talked about nuclear weapons after the movie.  And I shared with my kids the feelings that I had growing up under the constant threat of mutually assured destruction during the Cold War.

I think that most young people today really do not realize the power of these weapons.  I also think that they don’t seriously consider the existence and danger of these weapons as relevant to their lives.

Much like the exploration of space, which was so huge when I was young, the issue of the existence of these weapons seems as almost an antique concern.

When we travel and visit space and nuclear-related sites, I notice a distinct majority of gray haired folks among the other visitors.

Kids today take this stuff for granted.  And I think that glorified delivery-truck missions into low Earth orbit (the Space Shuttle) and the International Space Station (that no one seems to understand why it exists) just do not capture the imagination of young people.

I know that my kids had big eyes when they perceived what nuclear weapons can do.  I told them that I want to take them to see a rocket launch sometime so that they can experience the awe of being in the presence of real, raw power.

There is something mystical, spiritual, and sobering about such experiences.  They tend to wake you up.

I, for one, want my kids to enter adulthood wide awake.

All the best,

Hugh

Taking A Walk On The Beach

Dear Friend,

Sometimes, life seems so complex and chaotic that we really have no idea where to start to wrest back control over it.

It may be necessary for you to take a personal time out.

This time out may be with family and/or friends, like a vacation.  However, I believe that you really need to spend some time completely alone before you will be able to perceive your world with clarity.

When’s the last time that you took time for yourself?  All alone?  For an hour, a day, a weekend, or a month?

It’s hard to do, isn’t it?  You have responsibilities that do not make room for this essential time out.  And perhaps your family and friends will start worrying.  They may start peppering you with questions, and imagine that you are not feeling well.  Their well-meaning concern can put a spotlight on a moment in your life when you just want to quietly slip away.  Discomfort with that possibility can make you hesitate to take action.

Just do it anyway.

Find a time window, explain to your loved ones that you want to take some time for quiet meditation.  That you are exploring your spiritual side.  This explanation may allay their concerns.  And if it doesn’t, then they’ll just have to deal with it.

Don’t take personal communications devices with you.  Or if you just cannot be without them, turn them off until you are ready to use them.  Being tethered to a cell phone is no different than being back in your old environment.

If you believe that you can use technology to help you think more clearly, then do so.  Personally, I find the Internet to be a valuable resource.  When I have a clear thought while alone I may do some research on it to flesh it out further.  If you can use the Internet in this way, that’s great.

However, if you get business emails on your laptop, you will need to turn that feature off in your email software.  And don’t let your home page default to a business web site or to your webmail.

I think that you get the idea.  I am not anti-technology.  I just understand that we have to make technology our servant, not our master.

Thinking about your responsibilities while away will devastate your ability to clearly look inward.  We cannot abrogate our responsibilities, of course.  Nevertheless, we have a right to a real vacation once in a while.  A vacation from duties, from the rest of our busy, noise-filled lives.  You must give yourself permission to let those responsibilities take a short rest.

I hope that you will start to plan your personal “vacation” today.  Where you go and what you do are not important, though I find that a completely different environment than you are accustomed to is often a good idea.  And don’t make plans.  The fewer new responsibilities that you assume, the better.  No deadlines.  No schedules.

I wish you a peaceful experience.

All the best,

Hugh

Uh Oh

Dear Friend,

Family Travel Is Education.

Today, I watched as scientific data confirmed that the planet Earth had been split into pieces and vaporized.

You see, my family and I spent this afternoon at Meteor Crater in Arizona, the best preserved crater of its kind on Earth.  The Apollo astronauts trained here for the lunar landings, and studies continue here to understand what happens when objects from space impact the Earth and other heavenly bodies.

The Meteor Crater Visitor’s Center gave my family a real education.  One of the displays there  was actually a interactive computer screen that allowed you to simulate the effect of a meteor impact.  You could enter variables such as angle of impact, density, size and composition of the meteor, and the velocity of impact.  It was amazing to see how much difference resulted from changing variables as simple as the angle of impact.

After each input, the program would show a lifelike video of what would happen to either the Earth, Venus, or the Moon as a result of the impact.

My kids loved this thing. They all got a fun education in celestial physics.

Of course they jacked up all the variables to max right away, and the results on the machine were sobering.

Yes, we watched as our home, the Earth, was vaporized in front of our eyes.  Nothing was left after a large asteroid impact.  Other impacts only resulted in minor damage, such as the end of all life on Earth.  Thank goodness for that.

I also discovered during this visit that our family home sits at ground zero of one of the ten largest known meteor craters on Earth.  Yet you would never know it from being there.  Amazing.

There was a display showing the size of Meteor Crater compared to typical craters on the Moon.  There was no comparison.  You wouldn’t even notice this huge crater on the Moon, it is so small.  This really brought the scale of celestial objects into perspective.

Anyway, the presentation that my family experienced at Meteor Crater was better than I expected.  It was a real education.  I recommend it highly if you happen to travel in the Flagstaff, Arizona, area.

Tomorrow we travel to the north.  More on that later.

Talk to you soon!

Hugh

It's Gettin' Cold!

Dear Friend,

I just wanted to apologize if you tried to check out the New York Times article on barging on the canals in France in my last post.  The link that I used was bad.

You can try the new updated link at the article or just click here.

We are now dodging bitterly cold weather that is stalking us and our plans to visit a few high altitude sights.  Tomorrow we plan to make a quick run to high altitude, and then dash back down to the desert where we should be quite safe from snow.

Wish us luck!

All the best,

Hugh

Cruising the Canals of France by Barge

Dear Friend,

Bill and Nancy were a Maryland couple who decided to hang up their conventional lifestyle and try something new.

Their first adventure was moving aboard a sailboat and traveling for two years from the Chesapeake Bay to Venezuela.  Later on, Bill decided to “retire” a second time and got the idea to buy a barge in France and spend two years traveling Europe via canals.

Those two years turned into more than ten years, and this couple was featured in a New York Times article about their chosen lifestyle.

The world is not what you think it is.  And you will only understand it fully when you get out there and discover it.

You can learn more about the barging life on Europe’s canals at Bill & Nancy’s blog and at their website.

I hope that their experiences inspire you to follow your own dreams.

All the best,

Hugh