Healing, and the Path Ahead

Hey, what's up friends?

I haven't posted much here lately, because I have been utterly stressed from traveling 1800 miles while fighting a nasty head cold. Last night I managed to turn over a leaf or two in the healing process, and I thought it would be only fair that I make my presence known to you internet folk. ;)

I can't help but wonder who reads this thing... if you're out there reading, feel free to comment just to say hi to us... I do wonder who is following along with us on this journey.

I've been sick since the second day of traveling. It is my own fault, granted... for the week or two before we left, I had allowed my diet to deviate severely. I had also stopped exercising almost completely, save for the physical labor involved in moving and arranging things in the house. My immune system was inevitaby suppressed by the time we left. The rest is history.

Now that I am feeling better, I am starting to take a look at the road ahead. We're trying to figure out what our next move is. Kevin's grandparents, Kenneth and Helen, were kind enough to offer to allow us to stay in their back pasture for as long as is needed. For this I am quite grateful. They are very kind people, and have gone out of their way to try to make us feel as welcomed as possible.

However, despite their kindness, I still feel myself drawn towards Austin. I am going to speak with the owner at Covenant Canyon RV Park about our situation, and see whether or not there might be an opportunity for us to do some interior work on the house while staying there. Wherever we do it, we will need a storage area (like a temp. shed or something) to move most of our boxes into until the furniture is done... and we will need the owner of whichever property we end up on to be okay with a little sawing and hammering. (Luckily, the hammering will be inside, and we have good insulation.)

So, there are two distinct branches that need to be fleshed out in order for us to progress reasonably from this point. One is the physical labor of the construction of bookshelves, desks, flip up tables, and more shelves.

The other branch is more administrative... there are several appliances and accessories that I purchased in a rushed state, and I am sorry to say have turned out to be inappropriate for our application. Unfortunately, I have been so caught up in the chaos of making the move (and fighting my illness) that I am not entirely sure anyone is going to give me my money back at this point. However, I still have to try my best, and that is the second branch... calling up various vendors and attempting to return items after their return period has ended. I have an inverter to exchange, a hot water heater to exchange, a monitor arm to return, and a missing refrigerator to confirm that I have not been charged for. Whew.

I have to admit, I have been downright disappointed with all these mishaps, and I will certainly spend more time considering and laying out my plans in the future. We have also learned a valuable lesson on the subject of using LOCAL vendors.

I cannot stress enough that I recommend anyone interested in such a project to use LOCAL vendors for everything that you can, despite the inevitable draw for the uniquity of unusual internet purchases. In the event that any sort of exchange or return is needed, the convenience is critical in the face of all the chaotic aspects of organizing such a project.

In addition, as I said... it is important to really consider your plans thoroughly. Make sure you are buying the right thing. It is really all too disappointing to find out that your 700 dollar purchase is not the right item, two or three months after the purchase. Much less to have this happen over and over again with different utilities and appliances. It's disheartening to say the least. Down right depressing and confidence-smashing, to say a bit more.

Anyway. I hope it is a lesson to those of you out there who might rush such a project. This is a custom job, and there are a lot of quirks that must be considered.

But I digress.

We are moving into our next phase, which will most likely be painting the exterior. This will be paralleled with my attempt to tackle the "mis-purchases" issue.

From there, we start looking into RV parks in the Austin area that will allow us to build some furniture while on their land. Should we fail to make any progress towards this possibility, I will have to ask Kenneth and Helen how they would feel about us staying a bit longer, and possibly using their barn to store some of our stuff while we build furniture inside.

While they have been most gracious in letting us stay here on an unexpected whim, I would not want to impose upon them by asking so much of them. So, we will pursue the possibility of finding an RV park that would be comfortable with such a project first.


This is a wild and new reality for me, and it feels so open-ended. I don't really know how things will turn out, and that is half the fun. I feel so grateful to have a wonderful girlfriend, family, and friends who understand me and support me no matter what I do.

Thank you all for showing me that it is okay to follow my dreams. I will do my best to make something beautiful out of this opportunity, as I am sure Sam will. And I hope that we can share it with all of you through this vehicle.