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As I've been in the process of moving and putting most of my stuff into storage I've fantasized about getting rid of all my stuff so I could be unbound. It's a tempting idea but, as I thought, it is kind of time consuming and somewhat harder that it seems to execute. And though I like the idea of freedom, life on the road has never called to me. Thus I am all the more impressed by three women who've sold the stuff, hit the road and are blogging their adventures.
First up is Fab Grandma Karen. According to her blog profile:
My husband and I sold our house and all our stuff in 2000, and hit the road in a travel trailer. We worked at campgrounds and resorts from Texas to Pennsylvania for the next 7 years. In 2008, we were hired by the National Park Service to work at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, our dream jobs! When we aren't working, we go sightseeing, look for farm markets and and interesting scenery, and get to know the area we are in.
The joy in Karen's traveling lite life shines through in her blogging and joining her on the road is fabulous vicarious fun. Take this recent bit of advice for driving a particular stretch of highway:
I make this statement because I want to warn other "big-chested" women to make sure they have a very good, very tight, bra before driving across this state on I-20.
Every mile of the way, my ta-ta's were tortured, my mamaries were mangled, my boobies were bruised. There was no way I would have been able to drive, as I spent the entire time with my arms crossed across my chest in an effort to protect the girls. That was an impossible task! ... Get a good bra before you go through Louisiana.
Jane Devin is a more recent convert to the road-tripping life. She hit the road in mid-October, aided by sponsors who are providing technology and wheels, looking for the stories that allow her to tell us the story of her America. Here's a sample from Jane's travels at Finding My America:
For this leg of the journey, GM has lent me a bright yellow Camaro. It’s a car that’s meant to be conspicuous. I pull into parking lots and people start talking to me. I tell them about the car and my journey. A couple of people ask how they can get a job like mine. When I tell them they’d have to quit theirs, leave everything behind, and rely on donations, they stare back at me like I’m a little crazy. It makes me laugh, because it’s the one thing I don’t feel. I have never felt as balanced or as calm as I do now. There’s something soothing about traveling place to place, and meeting with people who have hung welcome signs, that makes me feel at home.
That doesn’t mean there are no problems, only that the problems don’t loom large. It’s been an adjustment trying to write in spaces that aren’t mine. Outside of giving up my much-loved pets, which left me bawling for three days straight, parting with the rituals I’ve had for over twenty years has been the most difficult transition. I’m used to writing in a quiet place with no distractions — where I can get up, pour coffee, walk around, blast music, and take a shower between paragraphs. Now I’m learning to write from any place I can – outdoors, in coffee shops, in kitchens that aren’t my own – with people around, children underfoot, and televisions blaring. My writing has suffered somewhat in the transition, my focus hasn’t as stable as I’d like it to be, but I can feel it starting to come back. I’d like to hang a sign on my blog that says “please be patient – writer is shifting.”
LeahPeah is another blogger who decide to reboot her life and take her blogging on the road. She and Joe have a three-step plan:
1. sell (almost) everything
2. travel
3. meet you
Why almost everything?
Part of us selling almost everything we own before hitting the road, is selecting the precious few things we want to save. Our Prized Possessions. Things with memories and sentimental value. It made us wonder what other people consider their prized possessions and why.
Leah is going to be interviewing people along our route and asking them about their precious items for the Prized Possessions
