Last week Katie shared her thoughts on the halfway point. Her post caused me to spend a little time in San Francisco this last weekend reflecting on our first six months of adventure.
I realized that this family trip now marks my longest adventure in duration. Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail took 165 days, or about 5.5 months. Cycling across America took only 80 days. We’re somewhere past 180 days in the road.
Six months is not a long time when measured against a full life, but it is a long time for a family of four to live in a 21 foot travel trailer and travel nearly 21,000 miles visiting about 40 state and national parks.
For certain there have been some slumps on our adventure and days I’d like to never relive, but overall the trip has been a great experience for me, for my relationship with Katie, and my relationships with Jane and Wilson.
I look forward to spending the rest of the year crossing the country, checking out many parks and places that we missed on our route west.
At the same time that I look forward to the rest of the adventure, I also have a desire to be finished. This feeling stems from a personal dilemma with which I’ve struggled for as long as I can remember. I pursue a goal, attain it (or sometimes fail to attain it), and then identify and strive for the next one.
This mentality is not driven by my dissatisfaction with my current state but by my desire to take on and experience new challenges.
I’m not in a hurry to finish this adventure. I’m simply excited for the ones to come.
As you can imagine, this trip has afforded me some time to reflect on my past accomplishments and failures, as well as consider some of the things I’d like to accomplish in the next few years. It has also given Katie and me some time to share thoughts about what we want to accomplish individually and together in the next 5 years.
In summary, there are a lot of things we want to attempt and accomplish for ourselves and our family before we reach age forty in 5-7 years, at which time we’ll likely embark on our next big family adventure.
We certainly don’t want to rush back home and to work, though there is a lot to get done, and I’m excited for new challenges ahead of us.
Share your comments...