The difficult is easy... the impossible just takes a little longer.
It's hard to believe it has been a year since we made the initial decision and goal to leave the state of Maine and head for Washington state. As of this writing, we've been on the road for 5 months and this is day 132. We've covered just under 3,000 miles, made over 580 phone calls, sent and received over 1,325 text messages, and slogged through over 200 emails. By the way, this is blog post # 44.
When all the National Parks closed for a while back in October of 2013, that put the final changes in our plans - we headed South instead of West. We also thought finding work would be easier, at least easier than it was currently in Maine. It turned out to be near impossible.
We prayed - then we prayed harder. Over the course of this journey, however, our prayers were answered, but not in the way we had hoped - at least initially. Currently, we are in northwest Georgia and have experienced some of the very things we tried to get away from in Maine; snow, cold temperatures, long grey stretches of weather, people who hibernate, and a lack of activity during the winter months.
We learned that people hibernate - even in Georgia. The weather changes no matter where you go and it gets cold in (at least this winter) in every part of the U.S., except southern California and Florida as well as Hawaii. The statements of the season have been,
"This winter has been very unusual." "We never get this much snow." "It normally doesn't get this cold!"
We have been landing in small towns that do not have many sights to see nor activities to do during the winter months. With our schedules and a lack of a vehicle, it has been a tad difficult to do any sight-seeing. Dave and I have been able to get out to see the local area as well as for our daily constitutional. On our walks, we get to see farms and pastures filled with cows and horses - as well as finding a cool plastic sunflower that now graces our RV.
An expectation of yours from that last sentence is that what we saw was beautiful. It was - but along the way we also experienced loose, annoying, barking dogs, a great deal of roadside trash and litter, along with loud cricket bugs, which we thought were frogs. Everything is not as it seems.
Another expectation fizzled as our 10 year old microwave finally died. Dave and I thought that it would be better to take along our large, tried and true microwave that used to be in the house back in Thomaston, Maine, instead of keeping the smaller unit that came with the Nomad.
Adding insult to injury, we found to our dismay that campfires are frowned on here in the campground as many of the sites are too close together and it's been too dry of a winter. So, it's been sandwiches, cereal, and other cold foods until we can replace our impaired microwave. However, we have been contemplating a combination microwave / coffee maker as we also brought our old coffee pot with us that happens to be 11 years old - and we have no idea when that appliance will blow. Dave swears he can't go a day without coffee.
Another expectation: the campground has (and advertises) a "camper kitchen" and recreation room. We expected both to be used by fellow campers. However, almost all the extended-stay campers either work all day and basically only sleep there, or they hibernate. Those two amenities never get used. No get-togethers, no pot luck suppers, no bonfires.
We did find a church through the back woods and have connected with people. Remembering when we first pulled into this campground, just as the day was getting dark, we could see the steeple lit through the leaf-less trees - like a comfortable lighthouse beacon. At this church, there are pot lucks, numerous get-togethers, but no bonfires. We're hoping to change that!
We've made many new friends, even though we are "Yankees". One couple in particular has shared our camping experiences and we bonded right off. Lori and Terrance along with their two teenage boys also invited us to their home for barbecue chicken dinner - a nice change of pace from camping. While taking in new surroundings, we noticed a decal of the local high school mascot that was on the back of a den door - the Cass Colonels. There were also many equine decorations adorning the walls. We are definitely not in Maine people...
Where has the time gone? In two weeks, we will be leaving Georgia and make our way north. It will be with great sorrow that we leave these new found friends behind. If we could, we would bring the entire church with us. It is an excellent example of Christian worship - lively music with a large choir, a humorous and energizing pastor, as well as a responsive congregation. There is a two-way conversation - pure worship (worship being a relationship with Christ).
One thing we weren't expecting was Spring to be here so soon. The signs are everywhere. First, we heard an odd burbling and searched the trees until in a clearing we saw a huge flock of migrating cranes. Second, were blooming daffodils and hellebores. Lastly, we were invaded by small ants. We tried to be kind to these beasts of nature by sprinkling pepper on our counter-tops, floor, all the outside connections to the ground, as well as the tires. After three days, if they hadn't been smushed by our thumbs, or be gone by their own free will - they were blasted with bug spray.
In retrospect, the things we thought would be difficult were in fact simple. Solutions came in many different forms. Many would not have come from our way of thinking. The impossible has become possible given more time and persistence.
Until next time,
The Happy Campers,
Jill & Dave
There's an old wise saying, "you can't control people, places, situations and things." This journey has brought that home to us in spades. From a US government shutdown that closed all national parks (and numerous ones we planned to visit and stay at), to bridges falling apart and cutting off our way to another campground and seasonal work in North Carolina, a brutally cold and snowy winter across much of the United States, as well as other promises of work in Southern Georgia that evaporated, this left us with more time on our hands to revitalize, refresh, reexamine our lives - and how God is in control of it all. 
Just as we have been blamed for bringing the cold down with us, we hope to bring the heat home with us. In three days, we'll start our trek back to Maine. As we wrote back in December, we landed a job from the beginning of April through the end of October at the Gardiner-Augusta KOA in Maine. We are wrapping up our site-seeing vistas - which ironically all seem to resemble some type of death. From famous Civil War graveyards and memorials to the largest salvage yard in the country that specializes in vintage cars, Old Car City in White, Georgia.
We are also cleaning and packing up the Nomad, getting the RV road ready for the 1200+ mile journey, as well as Skyping our daughters and grandkids before being off the grid for a while. We remapped our journey home, three times, as we will be taking a different route home, seeing friends we haven't seen for years, and going places we've never been. We're also wondering what this part of the journey will hold. 
