You know that Geico commercial that takes place in a boring, white office lunchroom and some guy is heating up a burrito in the microwave? For some reason, they thought that the song, The Final Countdown, by Europe, would be an appropriate theme song. For heating up a burrito.
I don’t like that commercial. Ask my kids. As little as we watch TV (no cable in this house), every time that one comes on I cringe. I might also lament out loud in anguish just so everyone around knows how much I despise the commercial.
The Final Countdown. That song was a hit when I was a kid. As in 11 years old. So, a band that once played in sold-out venues across the country, was now in a break room with a bunch bored-out-of-their-mind employees. Singing about a burrito heating up.
Why is it so weird to see the hit songs of our youth on tacky commercials? It’s almost painful watching the slow demise of popular singers and bands. Or those teen heartthrobs gracing the cover of AARP magazine? I’m pretty sure what hit me the hardest was the day, years ago, when I saw a headline on a magazine in the checkout lane that was telling how Debbie Gibson had posed for Playboy magazine. Whaaaa???? Debbie Gibson? One of my favorite teenybop pop stars of my childhood went….there?!?!
Heartbreaking.
Just like that dumb burrito commercial.
Yet, thanks to that commercial, that song keeps popping up in my head every time I am reminded that our 52 week road trip is about to start. Which is pretty much every minute of everyday.
In a little over 3 months from now, our lives will be making the biggest shift I believe we’ve ever made.
Marriage. Kids. Those were life altering moments, but looking back, they weren’t crazy things. Marriages and births happen everyday. I found those life changes to be very instinctive. Yes, lots of learning and growing, but it is an innate behavior in humans that allows us to transition to these stages of life. It’s instinctual.
Packing up your family of 4 and pug in a 40′ 5th wheel, leaving your family and 21 chickens behind – to travel for a year….not so instinctive. At least not for this girl. Yet, here we are, a little over 3 months away from doing this very thing.
52 weeks on the road. 52.
When my wonderful husband brought this idea up less than a year ago, we had so much time ahead of us and it didn’t seem so “real”. Now, every time I look at the calendar or get on our blog and see the countdown timer – it hits me and I’m pretty sure I get an internal shock to my system. In fact, I asked him if he could change the timer from the number of months to the number of days, because at least, then, the number would be bigger and wouldn’t seem so daunting to me.
So daunting that the amount of lists I have keeps increasing daily. It helps that I like lists and “I get a lot of things accomplished off my lists” (movie line). My lists are in a 5 section spiral AND a 4″ binder I bought for the trip. Don’t judge. But, really? Three months? Reality is setting in. Setting in hard. Am I ready for this?
This past Friday we made our trial run with Gipzee (the 5th wheel), Zeke (the F450) and the family, minus the pug, to our first ever RV park. We headed 5 hours SW of our home to a beautiful little town in called South Fork. We were still in our home state of Colorado, but far enough way to actually feel like we traveled somewhere. We stayed in the Peacock Meadows RV park and pretended that we knew what we were doing. Like backing into our spot for the weekend. Didn’t happen on the first try. Or second. Not even the third. Leveling Gipzee was a bit of a chore too, but we got it done. Well, close to level. It was a little off, but we decided to live with it. We figured out how to use our extremely small kitchen without all the conveniences of home and we got a very minuscule glimpse of how day to day life will be when we are all together in a small space.
A very small space compared to our 5,000 square foot home nestled on 5 acres that we have now.
We took time to just be. Have you every taken time to just be – or are you in the mode of being constantly on the go? That’s kind of where we are right now in our lives. Okay, so it’s been that way for the past ‘almost 13 years’ that we’ve had kids. It seems like the kids are always “doing” too. Busy little bees.
It’s not as easy for some people to disconnect as it is for others. I found myself getting a tad antsy. Charley – he had no issues with doing nothing much for 3 days. Go figure. We ate at a small, local BBQ restaurant, we went sledding (or when it came to me, it was more like face planting), we hung out in the sun, watched the kids skip rocks near the river, played some games and watched a couple movies. Wonderful down time!
As always, I found myself missing my flock. Yes, my 21 chickens mean a lot to me and for many reasons. Maybe one day I’ll write about that since so many people don’t exactly get why I’m so attached. But, the reality is…I missed them. Which made me realize how intensely I will miss them when I’m gone for a year. It’s a good thing I have my cameras up at the coop. I don’t scroll through social media much on my phone, but you’ll constantly find me watching the live streaming video of my chickens. They are my happy place, even when I’m far from them.
Overall, it was a great weekend. We are a family that likes to be together, so that’s not hard to do. What was hard for me was knowing that once we start our epoch48 – it won’t be for just a couple days. We won’t be heading home after a week. I can’t anticipate seeing my chickens “before I know it!” I won’t be able to spend random Thursday evenings at my parent’s house watching Hallmark movies or chatting with my mom. Nope.
It’s real, ya’ll! This adventure is really happening and we are in the final countdown stage. Take off is in 3 months and 6 days to be exact.
14 weeks.
98 days.
2,352 hours.
141,120 minutes.
8,467,200 seconds.
This won’t be easy, but as I’ve said before, I’m all about trying new things, stepping out of the box and being with my family making memories. So, while the knots in my stomach are screaming, “Don’t go!!!” My heart is saying…
Bring it on!