Beginnings

And so the adventure begins.

We’ve been planning this for almost a year now. Putting things in place so we could do what started this weekend. Remote positions and homes in two places. Considerable time off in the summers and crazy amounts of flexibility.

We set out early on Saturday, which just happened to be my birthday. After 9 hours on the road we stopped in a small town in the middle of Nevada that has not seen growth in over 20 years. Many of the businesses were closed and those open were being ran in rundown buildings in bad need of repair. It was quite sad.

But there is a new hotel for those making the trip north to south and we found it clean and bright and inviting. As we set out to find my birthday dinner, restaurant after restaurant was closed due to staffing issues or too little traffic for too long a period of time. And due to lack of choices and a deep concern with what might be being served at places with no patrons, we found ourselves at Denny’s. A Denny’s inside a casino no less. I have to say I’ve never had a birthday dinner from Denny’s, or really any dinner at Denny’s, but it proved quite good as take out, eaten in the hotel lobby with drinks I’d made in our room, overlooking the view of beautiful, high desert mountains. We toasted my birthday and the launch of the plan. We laughed a lot and cried a little as the dream became a reality.

So many adventures are planned for the upcoming months. Time in Boise. Time in Arizona. Time in Maine in a beach cottage where the days look like postcards and the nights are filled with the sounds of carousals and ferris wheels. Grandkids and boat rides and picnics and trips to the zoo.

As I sit quietly this morning waiting for time to catch up in this time zone so I can start work, I am reminded again how unique life can be if one chooses it to be. Some might wonder at our living arrangements. Small spaces… with so much living happening in them. And that, affording so much living outside of them as well.

I hope our choices show our kids that life can be anything they want it to be. It might be a big house with a boat and three cars. And that is perfect. Or it might be a small house or two or maybe one on wheels. With time on planes and trains and in automobiles staying in small towns in between the planned places and all no less part of the adventure. That maybe Denny’s is the perfect birthday dinner if it leads to the next place you’re headed. Maybe there are no wrong and right ways to live this life. Just your way. Any way you think is fun and will leave you with memories that make you smile and laugh when you remember them.

I’m looking forward with arms open wide, ready to take it all in. Every sunrise, every walk on every beach, every hug from each grandbaby and every new place that is a door into the next adventure.

And so it begins.