Tough Choices

When I had the idea to sell my house, divest myself of most of my belongings, and become a dedicated full timer, I guess I thought making decisions from now on would be easy.  Almost from the start that has not been the case.  This summer has turned out to be no different.

Starting off excited

Back up to last fall.  My road buddies Mary and Fay are brimming with excitement about the summer trip they have planned.  After spending the winter at our favorite refuge in New Mexico they would return to Georgia and park their 35' class A motorhome there.  Instead they had plans to move into a trailer purchased by Mary's mom, Lucille.  That's where the excitement begins.  The five of them (Mary, Fay, Lucille, Spike and Harley) would spend the summer zig zagging across the US starting in April and ending up in Alaska by June where they would spend some time before taking a different path back to Georgia by August in time for their fall/winter gig.  I have to admit, I'm jealous and following their blog posts just makes it worse.

Running into a little problem along the way

So one night we were sitting in the Volunteer Lounge talking about their trip when Natalie, a ranger from the fire section and a good buddy of ours, joined in the conversation.  Natalie reminded us that she grew up in Alaska.  In fact, she still has siblings living up there.  Before long a plan was hatched that Natalie and I would fly out to Alaska and meet up with the Zig Zaggers and really have a blast.  Having been to Alaska twice you would think I had seen enough, but how can anyone walk away from a trip to the last American frontier with a local guide?  I was pumped.

All fixed for now.  Hope it holds!

Now let's back up to the end of February when I had to spend a large chunk of my "cushion" fund to buy a new towed vehicle and have a tow plate installed.  Here comes the tough part.  In order to have a new car I had to forfeit the Alaska adventure.   Instead of fishing for salmon in clean northern waters I will be working at a switchboard 5 days a week building up my "cushion" again.  I am now working on making the best
of the "mature" decision - living out the trip vicariously through Mary's blog posts and telling myself there's always next year.