Why Are You Taking This Journey

Several have asked, "Why are you taking this trip at this time?"

I just got out of a warm soothing shower.  We will miss that during this trip.  There is a shower in the camper van but it is very small and the water supply is very limited.  We can shower in the homes of family and friends as we visit them as well as in truck stops and some camper sites.  But none will match our self-designed home shower.  Better showering is not a reason for taking this journey.

Daily we are reminded of our morality.  Yesterday we visited a lady who is nearly 101 years old and is probably not going to reach that birthday.  Last evening we received an email with a 1976 picture of four family members; only one is still alive and two died within the past 5 months.  It may sound morbid but visiting friends and family while we still alive sounds like a reasonable reason for this trip.

Visiting family and friends isn't limited to our morality; some we've never met, some we haven't seen for decades and some we've never visited in their own surroundings.

While we acknowledge that we are citizens of the world, we are also citizens of the United States and there are many places of interest that we have never seen, visited or explored  in the U.S..  In '81 we took our children on a nationwide drive to explore the country with an underlining policy that we would focus on visiting unique sites rather than repeating similar sites, such as not visiting Disney World after visiting Disneyland.  We will continue that idea as we crisscross from west to east, south to north.  The exception, of course, is with regard to family and friends; we will visit everyone we can regardless of when we saw them last.

We enjoy creating tangible memories of our travels so we will be videotaping, photographing, and journaling as we travel.  Some of it might be real time like on this blog and some will be editing and finalized on our return to home base.  This journey is a luxury that not all can do so we hope we can engage you through this blog.

Meanwhile, and until then, we will enjoy the luxury of a warm shower at home.