our epoch… one year, 48 state adventure
join us on our adventure as we visit all of the lower 48 states in one year!
We dropped down from Lake Tahoe into Sacrament for the first leg of our stay in California. From their, the state made it to the top of Izabella’s list. Mainly because of our trips to the ocean. She has always been a lover of water. Drinking or otherwise. Kari used to call her our water baby. But she also loved Redwood National Park. Along the way, we saw tide pools, did some boogie boarding and pigged out a sweet burger joint.
It sounds strange, but we were excited to escape to Nevada to get away from the heat. Back in Hurricane, Utah, we saw temps around 120 degrees! So heading northwest to the sub-100 degree heat near Great Basin National Park was a treat! Plus, who can argue with the beauty of Great Basin National Park, the Lehman Caves and Lake Tahoe?!? Not us!
Week 3 was definitely a treat as we made our way south from Idaho into Utah. It was a bit of a haul going from Clayton, Idaho to Salt Lake City Utah – but along the way we had some fun surprises that made it a bit more bearable!
A funny thing happened as we were driving through Nevada down the “Loneliest Highway”. As I was staring down the road for what seemed like endless miles, off in the distance I saw something. The road appeared to be turning into water straight ahead of us. As I focused more intensely, wanting to make sure to keep Zeke, Gipzee and the family in a safe place, the water seemed to never get closer. After a few minutes, I came back to reality and realized it was an optical illusion. It was kind of like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I think Bugs called it a “miragee”. As the miles passed by in my rear view mirror, the “water” staying safely off in the foreground, something occurred to me. This “miragee” was much like life.
Week 2 started with a LONG, HOT drive from Wyoming to Boise Idaho. One thing to remember for any rookies like us out there, letting GPS estimate your time of arrival can be very deceiving. If your top speed is 70, but GPS calculates on a speed limit of 80, you get a bit of a discrepancy…
After a ton of planning, preparing, cleaning, packing and waiting, the day had finally come. It was finally time to hitch up Gipzee, fire up Zeke and motor up I-25 from Castle Rock to Cheyenne. Or, more importantly, it was finally time for our epoch. Our new beginning. Our life. Revised. With a pug and a chicken no less.
So, it arrived. The big day finally arrived. Ten days ago, from the time I am writing this, our new season in this journey of life started.
June 18, 2018, our 52 week, 48 state adventure began.
In 56 days we will be starting our 52 week voyage across the USA. Our family of four (along with our pug) will leave our 5,000 sq. ft. house and we will be making our 5th wheel, Gipzee, our home for those 52 weeks. Gipzee has a bit under 500 sq. ft. Looks like we’ll be living in 10% of the amount of space we’re accustomed to living in.
Is this bad? Not really. But I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t be an adjustment.
There is a “known” thing on my Mom’s side of the family, if there are any qwerks or oddities in any of our personalities, or physical bodies, we blame it on the Banks side of our family. Aka, Banksisms.
The females have coined a term, Bankles, because apparently on the female side the Banks genes create legs that run straight from the calves into feet, bypassing the ankles. At least any visible ankle-like formation. I, being a male, apparently don’t have this abnormality. Or maybe I do and have never noticed it. But to us Banks, Bankles are a real thing. And they are, unfortunately, somewhat traumatizing.
We are all different. Very different. For that I’d like to say, “Thank you, Jesus!”
Different things make each of us tick. Different things make us happy, sad, hurt, inspired…you get the point.
Today I want to talk about your happy place. And mine. For the sake of the conversation, let’s remove our family as our happy place. That should be a given. At least for me and my life, so we are going to the “next place” that we like to go when we need to recharge, rest, smile, laugh, dream. And all those other much needed releases in order to make life more bearable.