Just Be Happy!

(By Rhanna, August 27th)

Something that I’ve found kind of interesting with the beginning of our plans to travel is the lack of enthusiasm that we’ve gotten from people. Or at least that I’ve gotten. I’ve told people and gotten replies of “cool.” and “that’s nice.” I’m not writing about it to complain and demand attention for what we’re doing, because that's not what I want. At all. I’m writing about it because it kind of fascinates me.

I’m in the middle of reading “My Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn, and it’s got me listening closely to what Mother Culture is telling us.
We are told in our culture that it is hard to just be happy for people. That upon hearing that a friend is making plans to change their lives, our first reaction is to point out all the things that can go wrong, be jealous and shoot them down to try to make ourselves feel better in some weird way, that it will “never work,” to give an answer that lacks any enthusiasm, to nod our heads solemnly and think to ourselves “they’ll never do it. They’re all talk.” Granted, there are a lot of people out there who talk the big talk and don’t even take a tiny step, but if you know us at all, you should know that we aren't those kind of people. I don’t think many people truly believed us when we first told them we were leaving California and moving to Washington. But we did it. We moved to a place that we had never been to before (well besides my Dad), and it was such amazing choice, and we've all just bloomed here. I know that we are going to bloom and blossom on our next adventure together as a strong, happy family.

Why can’t our first reaction as a culture to be to encourage and be happy for those people? Why not encourage them, even if they never do it? Why not try to be excited and make people feel loved and supported? Wouldn't the world be a better place if we put a little energy into encouraging people to love their dreams? It doesn’t take that much time to say “OMG that is wonderful! I am very very excited for you!!” And spend a little time asking them excited questions and listening to the answers. Everyone loves to be listened to, REALLY listened too. Here’s some food for thought: next time someone tells you they’re going to start an adventure or write a book or bake a cake or do anything, stop and think about what you’d like to hear if you were in their position. Don’t let Mother Culture get in the way of making someone feel loved.

Just be happy.

An overview of Revolving Front Door's 6-week history, from FB posts. Just for posterity.

August 17th, 2013: Today felt like a really productive day. Announcing the plan made it more real, and we all spent a lot of time talking, talking, talking. Rhanna and Thane (ages 16 and 11) are so engaged and happy to be a part of budget talks, RV particulars, etc. We also organized Evernote and started making lists, read RVer blogs, checked out RV-related iPhone apps, organized a ridiculous pile of recipes (which will likely be put into Evernote anyway, but still a good chore to finish), and worked on a lot of dolls. (Kel)

August 19th: Class A Motor-homes, Class C, Super-C, Vintage Luxury, 5th Wheels with a new truck.....ahhhh, the choices! On the plus-side, I am feeling good about the technology solutions...some AT&T, some Verizon, hotspot-phones, something called a ranger...we should be Wi-fi connected 80-85% of the time. (Abe)

Aug 20th: I think Abe considered buying us an actual semi for about an hour today. o_O  (Kel)

Aug 22nd: We've gotten quite a few emails like this, so here's a little Q&A for the day. 
Q: What made you guys decide to do this? Will Abe be working while you travel or did you come into a pile of money that will allow you to coast for awhile? Do you plan to live this way for years - what's the time frame? Aghhhh! Give me more DETAILS!

A: We actually wanted to do this a long time ago, and had been out looking at RVs and planning it out, but then I got pregnant with Emrys, and so we decided to wait, and then Emrys was Emrys, and life has been on hold in the meantime. This was always our dream of homeschooling, to show the kids the world this way. The world is our classroom, and all that, right??

Abe works from home, so it doesn't really matter where 'home' is, as long as he has internet access. There have been no windfalls; we'll sell our cars and live paycheck to paycheck like we do now, but overall monthly living costs should be less than they are now, if projections don't lie too badly.

Right now we can see doing this for a couple of years, maybe up to 5, but it depends on the kids' desires as they grow. Rhanna has dreams of her own, and Thane wants to settle down on "our farm" at some point, so who knows. All I can really say is that, if Emrys has taught us anything, it's that Planning Ahead is a pretty futile exercise. We'll just have to see what happens! 


Aug 22nd: Discussion about how to do souvenirs; spoons, patches on a banner, or spoons and patches on a banner, or spoons as a windchime. Whichever, Scott wants his share.

my old spoon collection

September 7th: Emrys has had his backpack packed for weeks now, and each day demands that we "Hurry up and move the house into the big truck!" We're just not moving fast enough for him. (Kel)

Sept 9th: Awesome Horoscope for this week says: 
"Awaken your spirit to adventure~ Hold nothing back! Learn to find an ease in risk. Soon you will be home in a new rhythm, for your soul senses that the world awaits you!!"

Sept 15th: The universe decided today was not the day for us to make a decision on the truck....and even though, we kept persisting we were thwarted. Here are the hurdles we faced:

1) Severe thunderstorm warnings made us question our 1 hour drive to the dealer - but we went anyway

2) Got to the dealer at 9am, only to realize they didn't open until 11.

3) Decided to go check out 5th wheels - Entered 'Camping World' in the garmin only to have it take us into some small neighborhood in Tacoma (the 'E' on the street) was missing.

4) Finally, got to an RV dealer and found 5th Wheels both HUGE and too small all at once

5) Headed back to Dealer at 11....only to wander the lot and realize the truck we wanted was offsite being detailed about another 20 minutes away.

6) Sat in a different 2011 Ford to get the feel....decided that was good enough for the day and headed home.

We will try again Wednesday....perhaps the stars can shift in our favor by then. (Abe)

Sept 17th: Here's the horse, which is really a dragon named Norberta. The cart will come after, in a few months.  Abe needs to practice backing this thing up. 

Exactly one month after answering the question, "Hey, you guys want to get on the road?" we got our truck. That's a good pace, I'd say!