Summary – School For Young Blood

April 9, 2020April 9, 2020

March Update

What the world looks like at the end of March 2020, is wildly different than what it looked like at the beginning of the month. Not just for us, but for everyone around the world with the rapid spread of the Covid-19.

We have been extremely fortunate as this drastic change has unfolded. In the radical slowness that we now find ourselves, we spend lots of time imagining into the future and connecting with our family, friends, and colleagues around the world. I can feel the germination of creative ideas, inspiration, and strategies that we might bring forth in the future to contribute to a more beautiful world.

This trip continues to teach us that home is wherever we are together. As we’ve gone from worldwide freedom to sheltering in place, our togetherness has maintained a beautiful stability for which I am extremely grateful.

We started the month in New Orleans, Louisiana. Kendall’s mom (Babe) flew there with the kids after they spent over a week with her and Dude in Portland. We spent a few days exploring and eating our way through that beautiful city.

One afternoon we visited the Whitney Plantation Museum, which did an excellent job of helping visitors understand the role of the slave trade and slavery in the history of the sugar plantations in Louisiana. It’s very potent land, and while it’s an intense tour and story, it feels so important that they are telling the story, and that millions of visitors are getting to see, feel, and experience it in this way.

We couldn’t visit New Orleans without walking around the French Quarter a bit. We did a good six or seven miles seeing above ground cemeteries, taking in the architecture, eating beignets, and collecting beads from the trees.

We wrote a long blog post about our time on Grand Cayman. It was a magical week full of sunshine, clear water, and friends.

With bellies full of good New Orleans cooking, we boarded a plane a few days later to Grand Cayman. This was during the time that the virus was still primarily in Asia, on cruise ships, and just begining to hit the US. While people we still flying on previously purchased tickets, few new tickets were being booked and we were greeting with a COVID warning brochure as we waited to head through customs. The plane on the first leg of the trip was nearly empty, but the airports and other flights all felt pretty normal.

When we returned to New Orleans after the week away, the news of the virus spreading was getting more significant and closer to home. We were visiting with friends who live just outside the city when the news came through that the NBA season was canceled. This friend loved watching basketball games as a way to unwind and the news helped us realize all the other changes that could be coming.

The following day we decided to head towards more open space and spend the next night in the Bayou at a Harvest Host location in Mississippi that was also an alligator preserve.

As we crossed into Mississippi we saw a giant rocket booster next to the freeway and stopped at the NASA Infinity Science Center. Seeing the scale of the boosters and rockets in person was amazing, but it was also a lesson in how the world was changing. The museum was very quiet and signs about social distancing and cleaning processes were cropping up.

As we drove along the Mississippi coast we were both impressed by the beauty of the sand, views and warm water, but also bummed about all the silt clouding the otherwise beautiful the water.

We decided some self imposed isolation would be good and heard about Dauphin Island at the Alabama Welcome Center. We figured that would be a great place for quiet, sunshine, and room to play outside. We’d spend a few days there and then decide what to do next.

As we walked the beaches, watched the news, and supported our youngest through some serious anxiety struggles, we decided not to head further north into Alabama and Georgia for civil rights tours and museums. We thought it was likely the museums could be closed before we got there (not to mention putting ourselves in bigger cities with potential infections), it didn’t seem wise to visit at that time.

Instead, we hugged the coast and made our way into Florida. The beaches in Destin were beautiful, but the campgrounds were fully booked or cost more than the hotels. So we found an inexpensive hotel room at a resort so we could use the pool and facilities, and camped in the parking lot while Mark worked from the room. Despite the beaches and restaurants being ridiculously packed (social distancing was being talked about, but no one was practicing it there yet), the hotel and pool were nearly empty.

That night (March 16th) we saw the start of high school and college spring breaks with crowded bars and people hanging out at the beach even though the next town over had closed the restaurants and beach already. As we saw the patch work response to the virus on the Florida coast we decided we didn’t want to be in an area that wasn’t taking the virus seriously.

We’d been planning to be in southern Georgia at the end of the month for a gathering at a hunting plantation to take part in an annual conservation burn of the land. The friend who was hosting the event invited us to come early and to stay in a lovely home on the property. We took him up on his generous offer and spent a glorious week at the lodge on this plantation. We saw him and his family when we first arrived before they’d decided to self-isolate, and were able to do a few trips around the property with them to watch the burning, visit the hunting dogs and horses, and spend an evening doing an informal dinner with them.

We took advantage of having a full kitchen again — baking cookies, roasting veggies in the oven, and using a Vitamix! Mark and I ran the mile-long driveway loop every morning and did yoga on the lawn. The girls made a movie and enjoyed all the space to spread out and use as a backdrop for their imagination games.

I enjoyed all the details lovingly placed throughout the house. This is just a small sampling of some of my favorites!

Upon noticing their incredible collection of Christmas-themed dinnerware, we plotted to throw a Christmas dinner party. We were hoping our friends could join, but by then they were in self-isolation as well. It was just the four of us, but it was a fabulous evening full of Christmas cheer, trivia, and red and green treats.

We watched the chaos of the virus and the stay-at-home orders unfold over the course of the week. With the event we planned to attend officially cancelled and the possibility that the house might be needed for other uses, we started plotting our next move. While we were sad to leave the beautiful space without enjoying it with others, we mostly felt grateful for the generosity of our friends for the time there.

After quite a bit of research, we found a darling little home on the shores of Lake Norman in North Carolina. We know this area well as one of Mark’s brothers and his mother live on this lake as well and we’ve been visiting for years.

The house is a perfect spot for us to be for (at least) a month. We have a loft bedroom upstairs, the kids have the entire lower level, and we have a lovely view of the lake and a dock. The house also came with a canoe and kayaks that we can use.

The weather was mostly sunny and warm (in the 80s) and we were able to be out on the dock, using the paddling gear, and enjoying the sunshine.

We stopped by to see Mark’s mom and step-dad and drop off some groceries and goodies. It’s strange to not be able to hug them or even be very close to them as we visit.

Mark’s brother and three of his sons made the hour trip to come over by boat for a visit. We had a lovely hangout on our dock, despite not hugging or sitting close together. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of all of them, even if only from a distance.

T got a nasty cold shortly after arriving in Georgia and has been battling it for the second half of the month. A lot of our activity was curbed to make sure she was staying still and resting as not to aggravate her cough. With all the talk of sickness, our senses are heightened, but we are grateful it isn’t something worse.

Our hearts and thoughts go out to everyone who finds themselves staying in one place, and dealing with fear, sadness, anger or loneliness. And our prayers go to all those who are working to heal themselves after contracting this virus, who are dealing with the passing of loved ones, and those on the front line taking care of us all. (And many thanks to Babe for sending us some homemade masks!)

March 17, 2020March 17, 2020

Time in Texas

We started the month of February still in New Mexico. The Carlsbad Caverns National Park came highly recommended, and we loved our tour there. This was my first time in underground caverns, with stalactites and stalagmites, and I could not believe how huge this space was. We walked to the bottom and took the elevator back up (except for Mark who used the climb back to the surface as his workout for the day!).

The next day we started our tour of Texas. As seems to happen at least once every month or two, we had to bring the van in for service, which dictates where we have to be and when. In this case, it meant we had to stick around the Fort Worth/ Dallas area.

Stopping at the Presidential Libraries had been recommended to us so we made our first one the George W. Bush Library in Dallas. Before our visit, the girls had never heard of “Dubya.” Not surprisingly, it tells the story of his presidency through rose colored glasses, and leaves out many details, but it did help me have a new understanding and appreciation for the way he viewed the world and his work in it.

Sitting in a replica of Dubya’s Oval Office (original version said Debra’s!)

One of our favorite parts of this trip is when we get to stop and see family and friends. We paid a visit to my Uncle Nick and his wife Amy and spent a lovely morning with them, their granddaughter, and two adorable pups. Mark also got to visit with his friend (and former camper) Tyler.

Another amazing stop was our serendipitous lesson in Neapolitan pizza — it’s history, how to make it, what it tastes like, etc. A simple lunch stop at Pizzeria Testa in Dallas turned into a full on educational experience!

When we got to Austin, we spent several days learning about President Lyndon B. Johnson — visiting his library, his childhood home, and his ranch (the Texas White House). I wrote this blog post with lots of thoughts about that experience.

T was very excited about being in Texas so she could see two friends we met last summer who joined us for the wine event in Oregon, but who live in Austin. We got together with them for some rock climbing and BBQ.

Terry Black’s BBQ in Austin with friends

One of the hard parts of being on the road all the time, is not having room to spread out, have quiet space, and get stuff done. We found the amazingly beautiful Austin library a perfect place to do this. We found a private room with an epic view, and camped out for a few hours, catching up on work, life, and learning projects.

And we spent some time exploring Austin including walking downtown, Barton Springs area, and Blackswan Yoga!

We have heard amazing things about Texas Hill Country so we decided to spend the weekend out in the area exploring, and using our Harvest Host membership. Heading out to Fredericksburg, we unplanned stop at the “Science Mill” which is an amazing museum, which I highly recommend – make sure you go early and stay till they close… we only touched 40% of what there was to see and do there.

We were told we should enjoy some of the wineries in Texas Hill Country. Maybe we’re spoiled being from Oregon and drinking a lot of Oregon and Washington wines, but Texas wine was not our favorite. Although there were beautiful views and it seemed like everyone was having a good time and the wineries were thriving.

Hill Country beer, however, we found delicious. We stopped at Bandera Ale Project as a Harvest Host overnight stop, and we thoroughly enjoyed their beer and their outdoor play/drinking area.

At Bandera Ale Project and our Harvest Host campsite for the night

We spent a few days in San Antonio at a big RV park, which isn’t our typical kind of stop, but the girls enjoyed the pool, and we enjoyed indoor space to do yoga, a pickle ball game and our workout on the walking path along the river.

We also spent a lovely evening in downtown San Antonio dining on the river walk and checking out the Alamo.

We made a point to visit the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park. In addition to being a historic park, it’s also a world heritage site. I was pleasantly surprised to see how the park service spoke about the missions, and how they impacted the native people in the region. It wasn’t a romanticized story about “saving savages” as the missions used to be presented… it was a balanced story that did not shy away from talking about the harm and devastation also brought to the native people of the region.

Just past mid-month, Mark flew the girls back to Portland so they could have some time with Dude and Babe. Mark stayed in Portland for a few days for meetings before flying back to me in Austin. I throughly enjoyed two days of alone time and the spaciousness of the RV solo. I went to three yoga classes, got some writing done, met up with a friend, and did a class on authentic relating with plants!

When Mark returned we had a week together to just have quiet time, meet up with friends, explored, and caught up on projects that require a lot of uninterrupted time. Unfortunately, P was really struggling with separation anxiety while she was away, which was highly unusual for her. She progressively felt better, but it required a lot of FaceTime calls each day, including being with her as she fell asleep each night. She said she really missed being with us in the van.

More RV repairs meant we stayed in Houston long than we would have liked, and didn’t allow us to get to New Orleans before the kids and Babe arrived, but we made some new friends and explored some new areas. We stopped in Beaumont for an amazing home cooked Indian dinner with friends of Mark’s through work and stayed up late into the night talking.

One of the things I’m learning, is that it doesn’t really matter where we are, as long as we’re together. We can be camping in a rest stop, a luxe RV resort, or in a friend’s driveway and I always feel like we’re at home because we have each other.

February 17, 2020

January Travels

We saw so much in January. According to the map, we drove for 30 hours and covered 1,800 miles. We focused mostly on two states (Arizona and New Mexico), although technically we started the month in Las Vegas, NV.

New Year’s fireworks over the strip in Las Vegas

This felt like a good pace. Not too fast. Still room to go slower. There are a few places I would have stayed longer, but overall we were ready to go when we did. And when we wanted to stay longer, we would.

We spent the first half of the month in Arizona and mostly in Tucson. We stayed in that city for almost a week as Mark flew out to join a work event in Florida. The girls and I enjoyed warm sunny days, visiting lots of museums, and swimming in the resort pool.

We visited the museum of miniatures, the Arizona-Sonora museum, and the Biosphere 2. When Mark got back, we explored the Saguaro desert, and spent a day at the Old Tucson attraction.

After we left Tucson, we had a lovely visit at a Harvest Host location that was also an Alpaca farm. The girls loved learning about alpacas, llamas, sheep, and how to care for and make a business out of raising alpacas.

We spent a few days in the super cute town of Bisbee, AZ. We toured the copper mine, and loved walking around the crazy town full of artists, hippies, great restaurants, and funky spaces.

We got a great recommendation to go to the Chiricahua’s which were epically beautiful!

The second half of the month was spent in New Mexico. We took the long, windy road up to the Gila Hot Springs and Gila Cliff Dwellings. We found an amazing campground that was on a river with hot spring pools right next to the banks. Sleeping there put us in the perfect spot for a morning visit to the Gila Cliff Dwellings nearby.

Other adventures in the month included camping at a dark sky campground, seeing a friend in the tiny town of Datil, and visiting the VLA (very large array of satellite dishes).

After a lot of go-go-going, we were very ready for a slowdown. We stopped in Truth or Consequences, NM which is known for it’s abundant hot spring water that is piped all over town into hot springs. We spent several days there soaking, getting massages, doing yoga, exploring the town, doing the local scavenger hunt, and visiting the local history museum. After several days of rest, we were ready to continue on.

Aiming ultimately for White Sands national monument, we made several fun stops on the way — in Las Cruces, camping at the base of the Organ Mountains, and visiting Leasburg Dam State Park.

We had a lovely day at White Sands National Park, sledding down the super soft white sand dunes and meeting two camels.

We also spent a day in Alamogordo where we visited the New Mexico Air and Space Museum. This area has quite the history of NASA involvement as well as missile and bomb testing…

RV repairs took us back north into Albuquerque. We hadn’t planned to go that far north because of the colder weather, but we’re glad we did. We had a lovely visit with an old friend of Mark’s, and Parker got her haircut!

We wanted to spend a day in Roswell, NM, and we picked Bottomless Lakes State Park. We ended up spending the afternoon at the park rather than going into Roswell right away. And we’re so glad we did. It was a gorgeous place and a relaxing day.

Roswell was full of alien kitsch and entertainment. We’d watched a video about Area 51 and the government alien coverup conspiracy which made walking around the town that much more fun.

Our last stop of the month was at the incredible Carlsbad Caverns. These caves are huge, well preserved, and were an amazing place to visit.

Looking back on the month, I’m amazed by how much we’ve seen and done. I joke that each day is a field trip for school, but I think that’s really true. Not a day goes by where we don’t have some amazing experience or learning opportunity or adventure. How blessed I feel that we are able to do this trip and we did all the hard work to make it happen!

January 14, 2020

December Update

After we returned from the quick trip to Portland for Thanksgiving, I feel like we really hit our stride. It felt good to be back in Spurge (the RV), it was nice to be leaving Vegas and getting out in open space again. We got to spend time in some places we were really excited about (Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Sedona) but didn’t feel too rushed or frantic. We stuck around Phoenix for a while to see several friends in the area.

What didn’t feel right was returning to Vegas. And even leaving the RV to fly somewhere felt strange. We were just settling back in, we were seeing new places, and then we had to backtrack into a big city.

But it wasn’t for too long. We left Spurge behind in the economy parking lot and flew from Vegas halfway across the Pacific to the beautiful Hawaiian islands.

We spent almost a week on Maui and were blessed with warm, sunny weather. Everyday we swam in the ocean, played in the sand, and saw lots of wildlife and a few friends. The girls became mermaids in the ocean, learned to boogie board, and flourished in the sunshine and fresh air.

We hopped over to Oahu, where we were joined by Kendall’s parents (Dude and Babe) for the week.

We stayed in a sweet home in Kailua that had a pool, hot tub, outdoor shower, and was on a canal a few blocks from the beach. The girls loved the pool and spent lots of time swimming, and even learned to dive in from the sides.

The rain came on and off which was delightful to hear on the roof at night. Christmas Day we had a big storm that knocked out power for most of the day and reportedly dumped 1-2” of rain per hour, at it’s peak! It was wild to watch from safe and warm inside the house. And by the evening, the storm lifted, and we ate Christmas dinner on the patio outside.

We traversed the island, stopping for shave ice, beaches, turtles in the sand, big waves, rum distilling tours, meals, and vistas. We tried surfing, went snorkeling, visited the Iolani Palace and Pearl Harbor, and explored an island where we hadn’t spent much time before. We so miss having regular time with Dude and Babe in Portland, that it was nice to have a long chunk of time to catch-up, play, and visit.

After Dude and Babe returned to the mainland, we had two more days in Waikiki and spent time exploring the west coast of the island, eating at some fun spots in the city, and meeting up with friends.

As is often the way at the end of year, we also spent some time talking as a family about what we want more of and less of in our lives in 2020. A big theme that emerged was continuing to slow down. While our pace of life has decreased dramatically from where it was this time last year, we all still feel there is a ways to go.

We’re going to spend more days in one place before moving on. We’re going to slow down how fast we eat, and how much we try to do in a day. We’re going to keep focusing on slowing down our food (eating local and cooking more) and how much “work” we commit (or plan) to do.

And in slowing down, I hope it allows us to be more present with what is, to reduce how much we use busy-ness to distract us from the emotions, the wonder, the unfolding, that is the present moment.

December 19, 2019

November Update

Someone told us that without routines, time moves at a different pace.

I don’t know that we realized how different our gauge of time would be until we hopped off the hamster wheel that was our life. Writing a summary of where we’ve been and what we’ve done seems near impossible even when we can look back and see the almost daily pictures we have posted on Instagram (@schoolforyoungblood).

With our new lifestyle, each day (even when we don’t go anywhere) feels like a week. Each week feels like a month… I can only assume that we will look back at our months in different locals as different lives.

While we intend to use this blog mostly for sharing our story and thoughts beyond our pictures and locations, we thought it is helpful to summarize where we have been and what we have done.

November was our first full month on the road and during it we’ve visited: Crater Lake, Klamath Falls, Lava Beds National Monument, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Incline Village, Santa Rosa, Tiburon, Larkspur, Petaluma, San Mateo, Half Moon Bay, Yosemite, Bodie Ghost Town, Mammoth Lakes, Bishop, Mono Lake, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Joshua Tree, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Portland, and Boulder City.

We’ve been to amazing museums covering natural history, cultural history and science: Stewart Indian School, Donner Party Museum, The Discovery Museum in Reno, Manzanar War Relocation Center, and had amazing nature experiences at Crater Lake, Lava Beds, Yosemite, Bodie State Historic Park, Mono Lake, and Death Valley.

We’ve seen so many animals. From the domestic (cats, kittens, dogs, puppies, horses, pigs, goats, bunnies and more) to the wild including road runner, javelina, coyote and bear.

We harvested olives, rode bikes, soaked in hot springs, watched sun sets, saw the Milky Way, explored caves, hiked around lakes, played in the snow, played in the sun, played in pools, and watched a parade of couches at night.

Despite all the fun and games, we’ve also managed to figure out the puzzles involved with life in an RV including: cooking lots of meals, doing heaps of laundry, cleaning inside and out, restocking with water, gas and propane, emptying our tanks, finding campgrounds (and a few times, not finding campgrounds), following directions, all while putting close to 5,000 miles on the van.

The cooler weather kept us in the van more than we would like. We relish warmer days and nights when we can cook and eat outside. The early sunsets are also difficult. We often have to wrap up our day by 3 or 4 pm, so we can camp for the night before it gets dark. Fortunately, the van is warm and cozy and it’s easy to be comfortable even when it’s pouring rain or there is over a foot of snow outside.

We’re not fitting in yoga as much as we’d like. Most days we’re getting good walking mileage in, but we could use some more workouts too. We’re eating well and taking care of ourselves with mostly the same standards we did in a static home, although we’re really missing our daily hot tub sessions.

The schooling part of this journey is well underway too. We’re enjoying reading the book “Marten Martin” out loud as a family at bedtime (thank you for the gift Joy and Thunder). The girls have their own books they’re reading during the day, and they are working on their math app, typing practice (now that we have their iPad keyboards), and they’ve made a few movies about some of the places we’ve visited. They send postcards back to friends and their class at school with highlights from some of our adventures. The experiential part of their education is pretty incredible — in a single day we can learn about geology at hot springs, American History in a gold mining town, and biology, geology and Native American history at Mono Lake.

Through it all we’ve had the chance to visit with friends, family, and colleagues. Each of them on their own could have been the highlight of the month, but collectively it has been extraordinary!

The girls spent a week in Portland before Thanksgiving with Kendall’s parents. Everyone loved the arrangement. They spent the week baking, playing, seeing movies, reading, and playing “school” with Dude and Babe. Mark and I enjoyed some quiet in the van that feels so much more spacious with two, rather than four, people. We enjoyed some self-care in Vegas and long hikes in Joshua Tree.

Most days there is at least one moment, where we stop and look around and have to remind ourselves that “this is our life!” A long-time dream being realized. We’re watching the girls grow and mature and evolve right before our eyes, and we see so many changes, despite the front row seat. They will often spontaneously report, “I love my life!” And I couldn’t agree more.

We’ve been revisiting our post on schooling as we try to synthesize and integrate the many life lessons that are offered to us daily. Here are some of our current ponderings based on the quotes that have inspired our thinking… hardly complete and concise, but imperfectly curious:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

– Mary Oliver

In looking back over the last month, we’ve realized that we kept our prior pace, which is no longer compatible with our new life. Our “go-go-go” has been interspersed with the rare day of staying put and integrating. We realized “recharge” days are more important than anything we have “done”. In long distance swimming you realize the importance of gliding, the efficient and most elegant part of the stroke, is what takes you efficiently to your destination. How we do we glide more through this precious life?

“The word school is derived from the Greek word schole, meaning “leisure.””

– Greg Mckeown

Checking off National Parks and Wonders of World now seems more like checking items of a shopping list and feels like the antithesis of unschooling our kids and unconditioning selves. Is it really a “wonder” if we don’t have time to be ponder it?

We’re feeling the conflict of our culture’s fascinations with the “7 Wonders of the World,” while it also trivializes the small, everyday wonders that are all around us but are increasingly difficult to experience. As we leave a rainy northwest city, we find magic in the heavenly canopy that both lights our way home in the desert, and soothes us to sleep as it carries water to earth to support all life. We have increasingly separated ourselves from these small wonders in the name of comfort and convenience only to add them back synthetically. Our hearts and heads hurt as we think about how much damage has been done to this beautiful planet in the name of comfort and convenience, by us individually as well as by the collective. How do we relax into wonder in the everyday, giving ourselves the time to have leisure and play, and release the drive to see all the “best” places or do all the “coolest” then?

“To attain knowledge, add things every day.
To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.”
– Lao-tzu

We spent a lot of time and energy building wealth and passive income so we would have total freedom, but we didn’t leave time to figure out what we want to do with that freedom or how to best utilize it.

It was easy to see in our own, and our children’s schooling that you don’t “learn” anything when you just study for a test. But even “experiential” learning doesn’t work if we are trying to cram in lots of experiences and only have surface-level, cocktail-party talk with people we meet. There is no depth in seeing the grand canyon by helicopter on a layover between flights. We notice a different relationship with the earth when we see a jackrabbit’s prints in the snow and sit and watch birds fly across the canyon rim while worrying our kids’ snowball fight might end with one of them falling past millions of years of geologic history and ancient sea beds.

These are all questions we are contemplating as we explore this new pace and way of life.

November 4, 2019December 2, 2019

First Month on the Road

We have officially been nomadic for a full month. At times, it has not at all been what I expected. And at times, it has been exactly what I had expected and hoped for, or exceeded it.

I had hoped for time outside — cooking, hanging out, walking and exploring. I had hoped to visit with friends, make fun discoveries, and see cool places. We have done all these things and more!

We launched ourselves, not by going south but by heading north to Bainbridge to wait for our license plates to be delivered. The dealer sent them late, so we had extra time to hang out and play with Uncle Charlie and the Martina family. We made one more stop in Portland to sort out the final items that we needed to put in storage and run the last errands that we could only do there. And as much as I LOVE Bainbridge Island and Portland, I found myself frustrated with the waiting before we could really get going on our adventure.

Seeing friends along the way is super important to us, so we made our first stop Eugene where we could see Cynthia. She gave an epic tour of her business and we had some delightful catch up time with her and some of her pets and one of her sons (see our earlier blog post to learn all about it). The weather looked like we would have rare sunshine on the coast, so we decided to visit Coos Bay after leaving Eugene.

I texted my friend Amber who moved to Coos Bay last year as we drove into town. Serendipitously, she responded that the big festival she was working on was happening right then, and that she was on the way to introduce an incredible documentary movie playing that night (The Biggest Little Farm). We changed our plans for the evening to go see the film and got to have dinner with her. The movie was powerful and continues to show up in our conversations and we are finding many connections to it as we travel. And we loved our time visiting with Amber.

Our time in Coos Bay also allowed us to eat and play outside, go swimming in a heated saltwater pool at the RV resort where we were staying, to see some wildlife (seals and whales), and to spread Kihei’s ashes on a beautiful beach where she played as a pup.

On our way to spend time with friends in Ashland, we made a stop in Bandon for the night. We made another unexpected discovery of an artist and her museum that makes giant sea animals out of collected trash from Oregon beaches. We literally stumbled upon it when we made a trip to the farmer’s market to pick up some fresh food.

We stayed longer in Ashland than we expected to, as it seemed to be the ideal place for the girls to celebrate Halloween. We spent lovely time with our friends Sarah and Travis and their kiddos Nuna and Piper and had a fun afternoon making apple crisp with our friends Joy and Thunder. The nice weather, plus the opportunity to get tire pressure monitors installed and an error message in the van addressed, encouraged us to stay on in Ashland. In addition to the errands and tasks, we also managed to get a massage, play in Lithia park, sample the delicious restaurants, visit the Science Center and celebrate Halloween with Nuna and her family.

What I didn’t expect from our first month on the road was how much time we would still have to spend “getting ready” — there were still a lot of supplies and resources we needed to find. From having extra keys made, to getting a tea kettle, to fixing the connector on the stowaway box so the turn signal worked. Also, on the drive to Ashland, we started getting an error message about the seatbelt, and the cruise control would stop working. The van spent the entire day at the Mercedes Dealer and they returned it to us saying they had no idea what was wrong, and more things were broken then when we brought it in! I didn’t expect to have this many problems with the van this early on and I didn’t expect the quantity of getting ready tasks and how much time we spent doing them rather than doing fun things like hiking and exploring.

I also didn’t expect that we would have to delay our plans to head south to wait out the planned power outages and wildfires in California this late in the season. The widespread outages and the wind threatening to start up new fires has made us leery of heading south through the state.

While we have been blessed with mostly amazing weather, we’ve also had our fair share of intensity. We had a downpour outside of Eugene that I was sure was going cause the van to spring a leak (it didn’t). We’ve had wind rock the van in Ashland making us realize that we don’t want to camp in the Santa Anna winds that blasted CA. The cold nights are keeping us in the van in the evenings and early mornings. While we’re comfortable while we’re sleeping, we’re missing being, living, and playing outside as much as we would like.

On our final day in Ashland, we sat in a Les Schwab tire center, waiting while they figure out why one tire is losing half of it’s pressure each day. We’re not suffering — the girls are doing their math work, I can write, Mark can get work done, and there is unlimited popcorn. But I’d much rather be out exploring new places and seeing more friends.

For me, this month has been a lesson in going with the flow. No two days are ever the same. Very rarely do the plans we dream up happen exactly as we want them. I’m learning to surrender to the flow of what needs to happen, what the weather dictates, and the new opportunities arise that we didn’t even know existed. I’m learning to let go of my story that it will be better if we do “X” or we’re going to miss out on “Y.” There is still so much of this country to explore, part of me feels antsy that we haven’t made it out of Oregon. But when I look back on all we’ve seen and done in the last month, I am thrilled about the quality of connections, the new discoveries, and the amount of play we’ve experienced. We didn’t go far, but we’re having a great time.