Before you have free time to do what you REALLY love, it is best to make a plan so when that time comes, you have everything in place to enjoy your dreams! But for many of us, life gets in the way of planning for and making such aspirations a reality. Work, children, aging parents, or even our own health concerns can distract us from setting goals and making a plan to achieve them.
One of my life-long dreams has been to own my own RV so I could travel the United States like I did with my aunt, uncle and cousins. For six summers from age 10-15 I would look forward to where we would go next. There were eight of us in total, crammed into a large custom van with my uncle’s pop-up camper being towed behind. Because our group was large, some of us had to sleep in the van or tents pitched outside. There were plenty of issues, and with several teenagers, lots of complaining. I’ve always loved being in the wilderness and my aunt and uncle had a goal of visiting all 48 continental states. Some of my favorite memories were visiting Yellowstone National Park, Hershey Park, PA, the Grand Canyon, and stepping on the four corners. When we pulled into each campground, I loved exploring the campsites and always envisioned that someday I would get one of those big motorhomes.
So, you can see this has been in the works for a LONG, LONG time! I also knew that, because of my job, I would not have that much time to take extended trips across the country for weeks or even months at a time which Becky would regularly remind me of. Why buy something if you can’t use it? Our original target to get serious about such a big purchase was for my 60th birthday.
And then COVID hit!
Everything got turned upside down. We were locked in our homes and felt like we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything. Our vacation plans were all cancelled, including trips to California to see several National Parks, and a trip planned to RV across Alaska for our 25th wedding anniversary. Frustrated that we wouldn’t get to see any of the National Parks we had planned on, I searched for an RV to rent so we could have our own safe space to make a trip to the Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee in June. What a wonderful week it was! I felt free! I was outdoors, hiking every day, taking in gorgeous views and I felt safe. I was in my happy place.
In the meantime, we had to continue serving our clients in creative ways and realized it was very possible to do so remotely! So, I thought why not push this goal of having an RV up a couple years? We had already been saving, and with our big trips cancelled in 2020 we had even more cash on hand. The question of work conflicts suddenly went away since we have all of the technology that allows me to work from anywhere. And with the realization that something like COVID could come out of nowhere and possibly impact my physical ability to realize my dreams was all that it took for me to decide that NOW was the time to make this happen!
In closing, I will leave you with this: “Healthy people have a thousand dreams, but an unhealthy person has only one, to be healthy again”. So, start making your plans NOW. Start saving. Start researching. Start practicing. Start exploring. We look forward to hearing about your dreams and to helping you make them a reality!
And if RVing is something that you think might be right for you, I encourage to you continue reading my future blogs where I’ll provide more details of our personal experiences. Just remember, the ultimate goal of it all is to make long lasting memories and have fun!
Part 2 coming next week!