"Are you really that happy?" queried a friend. "Your blog photos always look so smiley and cheerful."
"Yes," I said, "I mean no, well, not always."
Living in 80 square feet, depending almost entirely on one another for almost everything can definitely be a challenge. As we roll along in Thistle stress can ooze up from the cracks in the road. We never know where we will be camped at night or what will unfold around the next bend. Maneuvering around the dog or each other in such a tiny space, just to cross or uncross our legs, is challenging.
When stress joins us I can get testy, and sometimes downright grumpy. Stress for Ed puts him into an unresponsive mode, which can morph into grumpy too. There you have it, one testy person running headlong into one unresponsive person, with two-speeds of grumpy nipping at their heels.
Freshly on the road, mellow seems to be on hold until we reestablish our habits. "Where the heck is my toothbrush?" "Pleeeeze, don't make route decisions without me." "Yikes, dog hairs are even in my coffee!" Then we move into the easy space of our on-the-road routine and embrace our nomad life. The miles mellow us!
So, in the name of full disclosure, yes, we can be discontent and frustrated but mostly we're not. Mostly, we love our traveling life, one another, the dog and our adventure and that puts smiles on our faces.
September we hope to hit the road again…
~~~
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
~Mahatma Gandhi
Posted with Blogsy
I have edited my post because in rereading it the "nasty" part really was wrong. Ed and I are not nasty. I changed nasty to grumpy which is much more accurate and not quite so disagreeable to my readers, or to me either for that matter.
ReplyDeleteHi Fran!
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent blog post…sounds somewhat familiar.
Where will you go in September? We may go south to the Carolinas for winter.
Had a wonderful afternoon today at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota (been here?). Jamming across the rest of the state tomorrow, Minnesota the next and then a slow meander around the north end of Lake Superior into Canada.
Cheers,
Leslie
I'm married to a ND boy so yes we've been to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It's definitely a ND show place. Carolinas huh? We were thinking of Glacier to Colorado and back up the coast. Perhaps we should head east...
ReplyDeleteGreetings from the sailing vessel "Thistle". I stumbled across your blog and thought I'd say hello. We often talk about getting a Sprinter van in Europe, so I'll be reading your blog for information about the rig.
ReplyDeleteWe too often get the "permanent vacation" question. I wrote about it recently here: http://fortunesafloat.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-vacation-question.html
Until folks have lived like you and we live, they don't really get it, do they?
Laura Fortune
fortunesafloat.blogspot.com
Hi Laura, Nice to hear from you. I haven't been to your blog yet but I'm headed there shortly. We love our Sprinter, and the Westfalia conversion is wonderful. I'll be in touch again once I read your blog. Fran
ReplyDelete