The Next Leg

Where to begin … oh where to begin?

It would be hard to start at the beginning.

The truth of the matter is that everything that has gone on before in our lives, before we met and after Shirli and I met, is related to and an integral part of this thing … this “Where’s Fred Now?” thing. So I have a difficult time saying that this is a beginning when, in fact, it is more of a culmination of a lot of things. It is more of a point in time where a lot of things have melded together to create something that appears to be a beginning.

It is more along the lines of the next leg of the journey than it is a beginning. Very definitely an adventurous leg. We’ll admit that about it.

This thing is something that we have both longed for and worked toward. It has not been an overnight knee-jerk decision. It is not a whim or a wild hair.

No. Not hardly.

Not considering the many hours invested in talking about it. Not considering the many hours spent researching and studying the ins and outs of it. Not considering the many hours involved in exploring options and alternatives to living life as we know it in its present state.

It is, at the same time, also something where several contributing circumstances progressing over time and lately come together forces their bearing upon us. We are, like so many others, direly affected by the economics, politics, and legislations that characterize these modern times.

Victimized? Yeah. There is a certain sense of that involved in this thing though we refuse to allow ourselves to simply lay down and die in the stinking mess.

No. We are motivated by the aforementioned. We are stimulated by these circumstances to simply go ahead, take a giant but well thought out leap, and begin following what, for the two of us, has been a dream for quite a long time now.

The bottom line is that we can keep doing what we are doing … the doing of which is really getting us nowhere other than older fast and deeper into a hole that is growing increasingly more impossible to crawl out of … or we can drastically do something else. What we have chosen is the something else. For the sake of our sanity. For the sake of our physical health. For the sake of being able to simply live without the demands and dictates of a corporate society that expects more from us than we are willing or able to continue giving.

We are tired of and done with being a part of the mass of men that lead lives of quiet desperation in a constant grind of working all weekend doing everything that is necessary in order to go back to work Monday morning to grind out another week; only to keep doing it over and over and over again, snatching and grabbing for a few minutes here and a day there to simply be humans being instead of humans doing. The thing about the snatching and grabbing … after a while … living lives of quiet desperation … folks even give up on snatching and grabbing.

We are simply fed up with it. Done with it.

Thoreau was right-on about a lot of things. Not that we are basing our lives on Thoreau but we are going confidently in the direction of our dreams, living the life we have imagined fully expecting and anticipating that, as we simplify our lives, the laws of the universe will be simpler. Life will never be without problems and challenges. To think it possible to live without problems and challenges is a fool’s dream. But it can be a whole lot simpler.

Inherent in this thing is an issue of personal integrity ... one of those situations where personal integrity demands doing something else. Eating a little crow now and then is one thing. A total diet of crow is another matter altogether. Occasionally compromising is one thing. When compromise is an ongoing one sided matter it becomes something inordinate that is a soul-sucking unhealthy trap spawning dread and strangling precious life. Vitality evaporates. Creativity takes flight and vanishes. Wake with a mind full of dread. Go to sleep with a mind full of dread. It is a hell of a way to live.

This thing, despite any contributing circumstances, is what we want to do … it is what we choose to do … it is what we need to do to reclaim the vital and vibrant essence of ourselves. It is a must do thing. It is a now or it likely will not happen thing. Honestly. There is a lot more to it than loading up, taking off, and seeing the U.S.A. in a Chevrolet like a couple of old farts out for a drive. Plenty of old farts take off for a little trip. This is no little trip that we are talking about and preparing for.

Not hardly. This is a total lifestyle change in the works.

Is it scary?

Some. But what is more dreadfully frightening to think about is what we will continue to face if we keep just doing what we are doing as fellow participants in this party of quiet desperation.

When are we pulling out?

Sooner than later but not soon enough.

If we had the time to do the work and everything needed to do what’s needed … Fred could be ready to pull out in 2 weeks. But there are still a few loose ends to tie knots in. There are some things to move and get set up as a home base so we can … as our son-in-law calls it … post up when we are back this way. Stuff to sell. Stuff to give away. Stuff to load up and haul to the landfill. There is a lot of work involved in downsizing. There is even more work to it when you are talking about becoming full-time van dwellers with an RV in reserve as a place to post up.

2015 has been designated as our year to finish wrapping things up and putting things in place.

Where are we headed?

Who knows for sure? Not us. We have something of a plan but no itinerary or schedule in mind. West definitely figures into the picture. West is a big land. A lot, an awful lot, of BLM land and other federally managed land that offers free parking! The mountains are calling. The deserts are calling. There are sunrises and sunsets to experience.

And West is only one of the directions on the compass dial. There are 360 degrees on the dial.

So follow along.

Or, better yet, get yourself a motorized cottage and tag along with us. Then you’ll not have to wonder or ask …. Where’s Fred Now?

Sincerely,

David & Shirli