Eight months. Eight incredible months it’s been since we last wrote. How is it possible for time to disappear so easily?
I have such good intentions about writing. I list my projects for the day, and somehow, in my deep desire to get the other projects done, writing the journals drops to the bottom of the list. Then a week is gone, a month is gone. Then it’s a big job to catch up, as so many things have happened since we last wrote.
And “so-many-things-have-happened” is the good news – our steady list of accomplishments and adventures is ever-growing, despite our frequent feelings that we may never finish.
One early morning last week, Chelsea and I sat down with our protein shakes and toasted bagels, listing words that came to mind describing how we often feel. Slogging through, overwhelmed, slugging through, buried, churning through, swamped, plowing through, exhausted, bone-weary, isolated, plugging away, marching along… all these floated up.
Even though we do feel all these things on a regular basis, I’m happy to report it isn’t the full picture. We have taken on a massive project, and we’ve achieved incredible results so far. Optimism keeps us going through the days and weeks. When we’re not actually working (which is rare) or zoning out from tiredness, we pat ourselves on the back and make lists of our accomplishments.
One thing is for sure; it’s been a powerful experience dismantling our lives and creating the core of a completely new and radically different life.
So what have we been doing behind this veil of silence?
We’ve continued our downsizing, still using FreeCycle and Craigslist to reduce our goods. We’ve even had our own garage sale (though we had sworn we’d never do it again after the last one), and we joined in our neighbor’s garage sale a few times.
We finished our Body for Life program with great results; we’ve begun digitizing our lives (be sure to read the upcoming journal entry on downsizing – digitizing); we’ve undertaken a food dehydrating project for our trip; we continue to maintain the house and pool and yard and cook all our own meals; we’ve upped our riding mileage and frequency.
Our roommate moved out; Chelsea spent two and a half months working in California; we celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, St. Pat’s Day, Easter, and Mother’s Day, Chelsea’s birthday, and we’re on the verge of my birthday again..
After extensive research we’ve added significant items to our clothing and gear for the trip; we purchased Kindles and are figuring out how to maximize our use of them; and I’ve made significant progress in collecting and organizing the data for four books I’m writing.
It’s enough to tire out the most stalwart among us.
None of what we are doing is insurmountable – it’s more tedious and time-consuming than anything else. We have almost daily meetings to talk over where we are and what needs to be done next. One day recently I discussed the next project we needed to do. I outlined the project and started breaking it into the individual steps, listing who’d do what. Chelsea began to groan, and I admitted with a grin, “Yes, it is a bit tedious”.
Chelsea laughed at that, imitating me: “Scan eleven years of paperwork? No problem, it’s just a little tedious. Scan thousands of photos? No problem, it’s just a little tedious. Sell all our household goods and personal belongings? No problem, it’s just a little tedious. Copy all our DVDs onto our portable hard drive? No problem, it’s just a little tedious.”
She finished up… “Geez…sometimes I can’t wait get to back on our bike trip to escape the tedium…”
Speaking of getting back on our trip – we don’t yet have a leave date. If we don’t finish our projects by early September (which is looking doubtful), then we’ll switch routes and head back through Louisiana and Texas in November, and enter Mexico through Brownsville before Christmas.
If we don’t make the November timeline, we will likely wait until April and head back up the east coast, cross the country on the Northern Tier, come down the west coast, entering Mexico through Tijuana.
Meanwhile we will be plugging away at our projects. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs as I write more details on what we’ve accomplished so far.