Missoula, MT

A very wise young woman, our daughter Melissa, gave me a magnet with an inspirational quote as a gift when we began this journey.

I have been thinking a lot about this because Rich and I have purposely reached the end of our comfort zone.

We’ve had structured plans through today. Stay here two days, there four days. Visit with family during this week,  friends next week.

Starting tomorrow, we’re traveling differently. No planning multiple weeks out. Other than knowing we have to be back in Boise by October 5, we have no agenda.

For us, the king and queen of anal obsessive compulsiveness,  this is a huge step out of our comfort zone.

Our son, Richie, travels internationally extensively. He’s been to all seven continents, and over 35 countries. Usually he plans many aspects of his travel in advance, but he approached his last trip differently. He bought his ticket two days before he left and literally flew by the seat of his pants. He came back from that trip a changed person. He’s more accepting, more introspective, and more self reliant.

Always supremely intuitive and psychic, Melissa knew where this journey would emotionally take us before we did. She gave me the quote two months ago, but I haven’t been ready to put it out until today. It’s been hidden, shoved behind a bunch of papers. Today I hung it in a very prominent place where I will see it multiple times per day.

Thanks to Melissa’s  inspiration and Richie’s examples, we are ready to step out of our comfort zone.

More about comfort zones in later posts…

Polson, MT

OK, it’s confession time…

One of the things I have done for years is to hide my overeating of sweets. I Love, Love, Love anything with sugar. It’s one of my favorite food groups!

Now that we are together 24/7 and have a very limited space, I can’t hide my stash of Sugar Babies any more. Everything’s out in the open.

I felt like I was in the confessional again when I admitted the extent of my sweet tooth.

But afterwards, I felt like a huge burden had been lifted. Almost felt like I lost a few pounds!

So, you know what that means? I can eat more Sugar Babies!

Polson, MT

It’s been just two months since we bought Homer. Sixty two days to be exact.

We didn’t start traveling for a couple of weeks. Then we spent some time in Fallon and Boise both in and out of the motor home, and that time doesn’t really count in my mind… I’d say a rough guess is that we have ‘traveled and lived’ in Homer less than 30 days.

I remember my very wise brother-in-law Mike telling me that when you make a large purchase it takes 43 days to get over the shock. I think we are getting very close to being past that feeling.

Within the last week both Rich and I have felt a sense of calm wash over us. We noticed it within ourselves first, and then we noticed it within each other.

We’re not stressing about the small stuff. (Although I must admit that I still do and probably will forever freak out when I don’t have Internet and cell service.)

We are living and enjoying life  more in the moment than we ever have in the past 37 years of marriage.

So while living in about 200 square feet in an RV is a new experience for us, there are other less quantifiable changes that are taking place as well.

I’ll write more about these as we go along, but for now I just know that we are both enjoying the metamorphosis after that initial shock.

Columbia Falls, MT

This may come across as a rant. It’s not meant to be… It’s just something I’ve been pondering recently.

First, an explanation of the Pareto Principle also known as the 80/20 Rule. (From Forbes magazine)

“The Pareto Principle is very simple, yet very important. It is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who, in 1906, found that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

“What was most important about Pareto’s finding was that this 80/20 distribution occurs extremely frequently. For example, in general, 20% of your customers represent 80% of your sales. And 20% of your time produces 80% of your results.”

If you stop and think about it, the Pareto Principle applies to many things in life. We spend 80% of our friendship time on 20% of our friends. During an election year, your mail is probably 80% junk and 20% important. Most of us spend 20% of our cooking time preparing 80% of our meals assuming that you have one fancy meal every other week or so.

So here’s what got me thinking about the Pareto Principle again. We are staying at a park that has rules posted everywhere. Each of those rules are posted multiple times. And those rules are posted all in the colors that are normally reserved for DANGER alerts: yellow, black, and red. It’s an assault on one’s eyes because even innocuous information comes across as URGENT.

The problem is that you only need to tell or show 80% of people the rule once and they get it. The other 20% will never remember the rule no matter how many times you tell them.

So 80% are annoyed while 20% are absolutely clueless.

Think about it… How many times have you seen a “Slippery When Wet or Icy” sign and thought, “Gee, I didn’t realize that the floor might be slick when it’s wet…” or “I wonder if all ice is slippery or maybe if just this ice is…”? Probably not that often.

But then some twenty-percenter comes along and busts his butt without even realizing that the sign was there let alone thinking about reading it…

So, in reality, due to the Pareto Principle 80% of us spend 20% of our time reading stuff for the 20% who have an 80% need to read it.

Post Falls, ID

Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I will take a picture of a couple or family trying to take a photo of themselves on vacation.

When I worked at Boise State University, I volunteered to help at graduation and my favorite assignment was to be a runner because I got run around and take pictures of the graduates and their loved ones. I felt so much amazing energy to be around so many people happy at the same time.

The picture taking opportunity presented itself while we were at Grand Coulee Dam yesterday. I was walking Sophie when Rich spotted a couple trying to take a selfie. He came and got Sophie telling me, “You’re the Good Samaritan.  Go take their picture.” So I did. Although they were about our age, I could that they were new as a couple. They were thrilled to have a moment of their visit captured.

Later we were on our way home from a bike ride, and we came across a medical emergency. Conrad, a young boy about nine years old, was lying on the ground near the campground entrance. He was obviously in some sort of intense physical  distress. His mother was kneeling over him trying to calm him down so that his breathing would become more normal and regular.

Another woman was in a minivan parked at the scene. She was talking with someone (either on her cell phone’s speaker or the car’s OnStar) and relaying the medical instructions and information back and forth.

We asked the woman if we could do anything. She ignored us and focused completely on her task (which was the best thing to do given the gravity of the situation).

Rich said he noticed there was someone in the ranger station when we road by earlier, so I ran and pounded on the window. A young man in his late teens was working. I quickly told him what little I knew of the situation and told him to get help.

Although understandably flustered, he handled it perfectly. Initially he was going to come outside and help, but he quickly realized that getting a ranger was the best thing to do.

An ambulance came and took Conrad and his mother away, hopefully to safety and health.

I went back to the ranger station today to tell the young man that he handled the situation perfectly.

So my Good Samaritan deed for today is done. I complimented* the young man.  I also told him that too often we don’t take the time to tell someone that he/she did a good job, so that’s what I was doing…

Little tiny gifts that hopefully make others’ lives better.

*Special thanks to Renee Thompson for her idea of a year of compliments. http://www.reneethompson.com

Oak Harbor, WA

Not much to write about today. We moved from Bothell to Oak Harbor. Both are in Washington and only about 90 miles apart.

Apparently I needed to catch up on my sleep because I took at least a three hour nap today. I was so out of it, I’m not exactly sure when I fell asleep.

We’ve been full on the throttle since the first of the year preparing the house for sale, packing and moving after the sale.

And the good news is that I know I won’t have trouble sleeping tonight because it feels like I could have slept on through the night… There’s nothing like a good nap!

Better than a threesome is when it’s a foursome and Sophie sleeps with me. 🙂

Seattle, WA

We moved out of our house and into our travel trailer on May 8. but I’m only counting since we bought Homer because we didn’t know what we were going to do before then. We bought Homer on May 30. That’s the day we decided not to get a divorce 😉 and travel and live full time on a motor home for at least a year.

So we are six weeks into full timing. And I have been pondering what I miss most from our old life style.

Here are the top three:

1. DSL Internet. I’m a tech lover. Not a geek because I don’t want to understand how tech things work. I just them to work while I use them. Most but not all of the parks we are staying at SAY they have WiFi: some free, some for an hour a day, and some for a nominal charge. But over 75% of them have WiFi that is slower than dial up. It’s painful for someone who’s been spoiled with DSL for years…
2. Sophie Being Off Leash. When we stay in parks, Sophie’s got to be on a leash. We break the rules some because we don’t keep her on a six foot leash. We use a retractable leash. Whenever possible we take her to places where she can be off leash. We also cheat and keep her on a electronic collar (aka shock collar) if the spot we are in has defined space. That way she has a bit of freedom as often as possible. We will probably stay more often in state or federal campgrounds while the weather permits so that she can run free and be off leash during runs, hikes, and walks.
3. Frozen Brownies. Homer has a convection/microwave oven. I have only tried once to bake in it.  The results were less than spectacular. I used to cook brownies a couple of times per month. I would cut them into squares and flash freeze them. After they were frozen (and taste tested 🙂 ), I would put them in a large baggie and back in the freezer. Over the course of the next week or so, Rich and I would have a brownie* for dessert.  I miss them so much that I’m considering buying a toaster oven that will allow me to bake brownies and other goodies.

*Try CHEWY MEXICAN BROWNIES: add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 cup dried cranberries to your mixed brownies. Bake as directed.  Best frozen.

Boise, ID

Traveling today.

Instead of feeling foreign to travel, it’s starting to feel ‘normal’.

I keep hearing Willie Nelson signing from the back of the motor home…

Troutdale, OR

It’s interesting how slowly we are coming to grips with our life changes.

When I first looked at the forecast for the days we would be At Fort Stevens, I was bummed by all the forecasted heavy rain. So I immediately thought that if it was too bad, we could just go home early.

Took me a few minutes to realize that I WAS home. Home is now the motor home.

So then I stated thinking about what home feels like. What was it about wanting to go home that I wasn’t getting from the motor home.

Home feels safe. Home has my stuff in it. And home has my signature on it. People who know me could walk into and would know that “This one’s Kathy’s.”

We’re trying to not take too much stuff as we travel so that we don’t feel crowded. But I’ve realized that I need to get a few things out of storage while we’re back in Boise next week to make myself feel more at home.