Finally did it......

I’m super proud of my down time right now. I finally contacted a company called scan my photos and they will be sending me a pre-paid box for my photos I have been saving over the years. This company scans all of the photos for proper saving. This is so exciting to get this item crossed off my to-do list. I didn’t want to continue to save the photos in a storage unit or my car due to moisture and age damage. When they get scanned they will live on forever. The past two days have been really beautiful here in Washington and I have taken full advantage of the weather by cleaning out my camper and car from the inside as well as washing the outside and I put a coat of wax on my car yesterday to continue to preserve her. I am internally planning a road trip down the west coast of the U.S. so I thought since I will be around the coast and salty air from the ocean, the car deserved a coat of wax. Come to think of it, maybe I should wax my camper as well for more protection.

This week is very quiet here, the Moore family are camping on the south coast of Washington by the Oregon state line. I have been tending to the chickens and I even created a fun game for the family to participate in. I called it the Moore family Egg Hunt. They had to guess how many eggs the chickens would lay while they were away and the closest person to the number without going over will win a prize from me. I don’t yet know what that prize will be, but every person in the family loves massage - so that might be the big prize. Not sure!

Having the home to myself since they are away, enables me to bring all of my clothing bags inside and lay things out on the floor to continue (yes, continue) to downsize what I have in my car. If I am taking a road trip down the coast, the last thing I want is a bunch of things I don’t need. Clutter makes me feel stressed and when I went surfing last week, I felt stressed out in my car because I had way to many things in it. This was a good trip to take (it takes bout 2.5 hours to the beach) so I can feel how it would feel like to have all of those unnecessary things in my car. If living in my camper has taught me one thing, it has been that we really don’t use that many things in our life to operate on a daily basis. We have been taught as a society that having stuff is a good thing or we are supposed to keep buying things. However, I am learning how little I use on a daily basis. I am very comfortable wearing the same clothes over and over. I have also learned that shopping is a habit for me. This is a big reason I chose to get rid of my house in the first place. I remember the feeling that no matter what I bought for my home, after the initial excitement of its arrival (thanks online shopping) I was still just as sad and lonely as I was before I got the thing in the mail. I was keeping myself posted up in my house, I never invited friends over, and I would rather lay in my house than go and do the things that I enjoyed doing because I was very depressed at the time. Getting rid of my house forced me to face a lot of stored up emotions that I needed to deal with and I have never looked back and thought - “I wish I wouldn’t have sold my home.” Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My goals in the next few days are to pack clothing to get me all the way to southern California. I will make it all the way to San Diego to visit some good friends of mine and hopefully spend some time with them. My great friend Adriana has had a baby since the last time we saw each other in 2017 and I don’t want the little girl to be 5 years old before I meet her. He baby son that I saw last crawling and crying is not playing soccer! HOLY CRAP - I really want to connect with her and spend some time catching up on life and our dreams. Of course I want to surf the coast, but to be honest the main reason for the trip is to feel the feelings I get when I see the absolute beauty of nature in different places. In Oregon, I would like to visit some hot springs as long as they are accessible with my car/camper this time of year. I want to view Crater Lake (weather depending) Then, before you know it I am on the North Coast of California and this is a part of the state that Reggie and I had to by-pass back in 2016 during our cross country trip because the weather was so intense.

When I was at the beach a few days ago, I met this surfer as he was finishing his session and we chatted a bit. It was so cool to find out, he was from Canada and him and his buddy (with a broke toe sitting in the car) had been all the way down the coast (in their car camping) down to San Diego and back up in two weeks. He was between jobs, had a great attitude, and was really happy about his adventure. I took this guy Eric as a messenger from the universe telling me now is the time to take the trip I have wanted to take for years. Now is a great time, I have good contact with my friends and family and if I need support they are a phone call away. Once I get these pictures back from the scan company and all of my non-needed items donated in my storage unit, I can be on my way. In the meantime, I am contacting my old online college I began back in 2014. Since I will be traveling, I thought it would be good to do online school as a way to use my benefits for my travel income. I can’t commit to being in one location, so online would be a great choice. Looking back to last month, I spent a lot more money than I had anticipated and I have learned a valuable lesson about needing to track my spending during travel. I want to be more conscious about the money I am spending - on food, gas, and simple pleasures. I don’t make as much money right now as I have in the past and I want to be more mindful and live within my means so I don’t get to feeling that I can’t enjoy myself with my retirement income. This is a shift that I should have made last year in school, but after the cold hard Washington winter, I think I lost my mind being in Hawaii (It was so worth it…. ha,ha…..) I really needed that trip for so many reasons. Mainly to push me into the trip I am taking next, which I feel may be more in alignment with what I have wanted for a long time. I pulled out my journal from 2016-2017 and I had been planning this west coast trip in my journals since then. Maybe at a deep level, this trip is intimidating for me. I haven’t taken my camper outside of the state limits of Washington.

I am getting new tires, I want to get new brakes on my car and I will ask Dennis to check on my tires for the camper and the bearings before I hit the road. I know you can’t prevent what will happen, but my goal is to be the best prepared that I can be. I am certain it will be a trip of a lifetime - a first for me for sure.