Count Your Blessings

Cyndie and I are stuck inside on a cold, blustery day. We're doing some real estate work, working on some travel plans, and generally trying to stay warm and dry (and hoping that Tim's game this afternoon is moved inside the dome instead of being outside in 50 degree weather with 25 mile per hour wind and rain).

On a day which could be a bit of a drag where we're limited to 300 square feet (or the local coffee shop), we are choosing to count ourselves blessed. Looking around our little house on wheels makes me so happy. I am literally smiling as I write this. We are living the dream! Is it everyone's dream? No way. But this is something we've been excited about for a while. We have a lot of flexibility to pursue those things which are important to us (travel, experiences, family). We have almost all of the things we really enjoy in life with almost none of the negatives. And more exciting things (overseas travel, catamaran!!) are on the horizon.

What is the moral of the story? Pursue your dreams. Push your limits. Make goals for yourself. Set steps toward your goals. Execute them. Everyone has different priorities. Pursue what you value. Don't let someone else tell you that your dream is dumb or unachievable. Don't get stuck living life the same way you always have just because.

Our society likes to tell us what should be. Don't accept that. 

Think outside the box. You are worth it.

So a thing happened?!

 Yes, it's been a while since I posted. Bad me. Life is great. We are loving RV life and I can't fathom how I ever worked a job given our busy we are?! We've spent the last several months doing lots of exercising, watching soccer, visiting family, meeting new people, and exploring the upper/western side of the Midwest. It's been great.

And now we did a thing.

*not "our" boat, but the same year and model

There is a fairly length story behind it, but we are on contract to buy a Leopard 44 sailing catamaran!? This has been a dream of ours for a while and the fact that it is so close to reality is insane. There are still a lot of steps (get the boat to the US, do a survey and sea trial. Oh and learn to sail). But the biggest one of finding the boat is complete. More details to come!

These pictures actually of "our" (soon to be) boat.

On the Road

 Well, it's official. We're on the road. The journey has begun.

How did we get here? Lots of packing, last minute projects, enjoying some last Lake Geneva fun, and good byes with friends and family.

Packing went about as smoothly as it could. We had earlier in July filled a 20 yard dumpster with

20 yard dumpster

"stuff" that had been floating around our house for 17 years, so we were not dealing with quite as much to sort through. But moving from a five bedroom, 2800 square foot home to a 35 foot fifth wheel is no small thing. In this case, the tortoise was successful, and little by little we got moved. As of this writing, we have not really needed for anything!

Our rig "Haven" parked in the driveway awaiting packing.

Getting packed, bedroom edition

Our girl was a big help in getting us ready to go

We were able to get out on the lake a bit despite some engine issues with our boat. We (and especially Cyndie) will totally miss time on the lake and skiing. But alas, despite our best attempts, we have not found a way to do everything, all the time, every where. Meaning that our boating season of life has come to an end for now.

Tim

Emma

Cyndie aka "Ski Babe"

Tim navigated the week before college in typical fashion, soccer, workouts, and getting as much time with friends in as possible. He was able to get some quality hang out time in with all of his various friends including one last overnight with the three amigos. What a blessing these guys have been to Tim. I really hope that their friendship continues as their stages of life change!

Two amigos sleeping

Tim's adult league team - league champs!

And then we left. After a weekend of final prep, cleaning the house, and general chaos we were sent on our way by a lovely group of people on Sunday night. We slept, and hit the road at 6a on Monday driving Tim's car full of his things and our rig 8 hours west to Western Iowa.

My driving partner

Threatening Skies over Iowa

After an uneventful trip* we arrived at Dordt University to get Tim checked in and ready for soccer pre-season.

*Uneventful is probably relative. We got a decent amount of rain and it was pretty windy. At this point we're extremely happy with our decision to buy a one ton dually (GMC) to pull our fifth wheel. We had 20 MPH winds all across Iowa and I barely felt them.

Dordt University's #24, Freshman Tim DeVries

We've now left the land of KwikTrip and entered that of Casey's*. Whatever will Tim do?

*In driving around his college town, Sioux Center, we did see a KwikStar (the Iowa branch of KwikTrip) being built. Perhaps life will go on.

And now we're settling in to a new phase of life. We haven't found a new normal yet. That will come in time. We're at a beautiful little county campground right on the Iowa/South Dakota border where we are the only people (thus far through the first three and a half days we've been here) here in our loop. We wake up to a lake view and sunshine with our coffee. We enjoy the trails the campground has with the goal of walking at least five miles a day. We're enjoying the slower pace of life. We're enjoying being outside a lot. We're finding ourselves on our phones a lot less and rather passing the time reading, watching the water, and being together!

"Our" campsite on the Eagle View loop

Swimming hole at Eagle View Campground

Railroad bridge over the Big Sioux River, the border between SD and IA

Haven

We're official!

Things we've learned this week:

• Leaving is harder than we expected. Even though we'll be back in LG frequently, it will not be the same. We'll miss places. We'll miss our friends. We'll miss our family. Leaving Emma and Connor in LG is probably the hardest. The two and a half months that they've been back have been a ton of fun. It's great to like your kids, but it's even better to get to know them as really awesome adults!
• Goals are good. We talk to so many people who want something similar to what we're doing (flexibility; financially, geographically, etc). We don't have any secret sauce, but we did set goals and were able to attain them.

Things we're looking forward to:

• Real soccer ... Tim's first scrimmage four hours away in Des Moines against Grandview University on Saturday.
• Seeing how Haven handles the heat; we're looking at high 90s weather starting on the weekend and heading through mid-next week. AC is very welcome!

Tim on the training pitch

It's About to Get Real

 Yes, after years of talking and planning, it's about to get real. In under a week, we will be hitting the road.

It's been a journey for sure. It probably started back in around 2005 when Cyndie and I first started talking about what our priorities in life should be.

In the fall of 2007 those discussions lead us to move from Southern California to Lake Geneva, WI. This has been a marvelous place to live, work, and raise kids.

But always we have had that pull to explore. To experience new places and different people. To see the beauty of God's creation, both in our own country and abroad.

So welcome along for the journey. I hope to document it here. I'll add in pictures Cyndie takes and possibly some videos too. For now I'll leave you with this.

"It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn." — Anthony Bourdain

-Neal 

 

Castles, Castles, Everywhere!

Today, castles.  We left our sweet country cottage at about 10, and headed out to do our own version of the Castle Trail.*

*The Castle Trail is an actual thing, street signs and everything.  I think it's largely a construct of the tourism industry in Scotland.  However, it is well earned in that there are 20 or 30 "real" castles in the northeast of  Scotland within 150 miles or so of each other.

First up was Crathes Castle.  It was in nice repair and we took a guided tour of the whole inside from a nice lady named Irene.  We learned about the history and the family.  It was the domain of a laird, who if I remember correctly, was basically the king's representative in that area.  He was law and tax collector and protector, etc.  We ran a little long there due to the timing of the guided tour (which was required to see the space).

Next up was Drum Castle.  It was of a similar era and also owned by a laird of the king.  Given we were running a bit late, we opted out of the guided tour and toured ourselves.  Each room had a description placard which gave us enough information to learn about the space while still allowing us to get through the castle relatively quickly.  It was built in three distinct eras, the tower house in the 1400s, then two expansions in the 1600s and 1700s.  It was similarly furnished and appointed to Crathes Castle.  Dad elected to hang out in the castle courtyard with our guidebook and a book so as to not over do it.

From there we went to Castle Fraser.  It was almost a fairy tale looking castle with parapets, etc.  Unfortunately, it required a guided tour and didn't have one available until later in the day ... later than we wanted to stay.  So we elected to walk around the outside and then head out to the real crown jewel of the day ...

Tolquhon Castle!  Definitely this was the high light.  It was another ruin.  When we were driving up, aside from seeing some street signs, we really thought we were in the wrong place.  We were on back roads and at one point basically drove through a farm.  When we pulled in, we were the only car in the parking lot!  We got our tickets and went in lickety split.  I think some of the things I like best about places like these is the freedom to go almost anywhere, the green grass against the stone work, and the relative lack of people at most of these ruin sites.  It was beautiful.  About the only thing that could have improved it would have been for it to sit on the banks of a river or something.  Cyndie and Emma did some senior photos here as well.

We were pretty wiped after all the action and happy to head to the next AirBnB.  It was a little bit of a drive, around 75 minutes.  We found our house*, put our stuff inside, and then headed to the local village for some traditional fish and chips take away**.

*Directions are not the easiest in this part of Scotland.  We ended up in a hilly rural community on a small one way road.  Fortunately we were able to navigate there more easily using the AirBnB app.

**Take away = take out.

After a quick stop for some groceries (for lunch in the car), a walk by the river, and observing a local piper's marching band practice for a regional competition, we headed home to get a decent night's sleep!

Leaving the City

Today we left the city early ... around 8.  Being a Sunday, the traffic was almost nil, so the drive was very easy and went by quickly.  By about 9, we were arriving at Stirling Castle.  It was fun to drive up from the highway as we could see the castle up on a cliff overlooking the city of Stirling, so we watched it as we approached. 

We arrived about 30 minutes before opening.  It was nice that there was a fun park-like graveyard on one side of the castle.  We wandered in there for a while until the castle opened.  It was fun to go in right away (skipped the line made by the three tour buses) because we had the Explorer Pass.  It was a beautiful castle with some restored rooms, though not as opulent as Edinburgh Castle.  The setting was awesome, overlooking a valley with a river.  Throughout the day, we learned a lot about William Wallace, who is a little like the George Washington figure for Scotland (not a founding father, but an inspirational military leader).  The castle has a significant part in the history of Scotland as it guards the passage between north and south Scotland.  After a light lunch at the castle, we headed over to the National Wallace Monument.

The Wallace Monument was built during the Victorian 1860s; a period of time during which the heroism of the past was greatly celebrated (e.g. the Washington Monument built in the same era).  It stands on a cliff facing the Stirling Castle; appropriate because it was the point from which William Wallace surveyed the battlefield prior to the Battle of Stirling Bridge (the big battle with all the lances and the famous speech from Braveheart).  It was about 200 steps (in a tight spiral) to the top and offered spectacular views of the surrounding hills and valleys.  It was well worth the trip to the top.  Dad didn't feel ready for the steps, but road the tram with us to the top of the hill and enjoyed the view from the bottom.

From the Wallace Monument we drove an hour and a half north to Dunnottar Castle.  This is the ruin of a castle which was held by and important nobleman during the 1400s and 1500s.  It was absolutely spectacular.  It was on a narrow (and tall) peninsula jutting out into the sea.  The ruin meant some walls had fallen, and there were no roofs on any of the buildings.  But man, was the site breathtaking.  It was also really cool that it was so well manicured.  Lush, thick green lawns all over the grounds were a really nice juxtaposition against the stone of the buildings.  Being much further away from the cities in the south, as well as not as easily accessible, there were far fewer people.  We spent an hour and a half exploring the ruins and admiring the views (we didn't see any dolphins or seals) and learning about the location's history.

After that it was a short drive to our AirBnb, a really cute country cottage.  After dropping our things we went and had Chinese, and now we're ready to drop!  We're all looking forward to a later start tomorrow morning (not leaving until 10a!).

Things we learned today:

• We definitely enjoy the country side and less heavily populated tourist destinations far more!
• Our VRBO was on Grassmarket Square, home to many restaurants and bars.  It was a party last night!  We were all so tired we slept fine, but man, what a mess the Square was when we woke up.  Cyndie watched the garbage/street sweepers working there for a while and was rewarded with a rousing rendition of "Sweet Caroline"!
• Reason number 482 to like AirBnB style traveling: fun bathtubs.  Emma soaked for a while tonight in our fancy tub!  Cyndie and I are looking forward to coffee out on the patio overlooking a field in the morning.
• The rough and wild shorelines of Western Scotland are spectacular!

Edinburgh!

Today we did Edinburgh ...

• First up, Camera Obscura.  We walked up in the drizzle, but it was only about a 5 minute walk from our place.  It's so hard to describe so here's the link:  https://www.camera-obscura.co.uk/.  Basically, it was a lot of illusions and tricks of the eye; lots of hands on stuff.  The highlight was definitely the maze of mirros (so cool!!!) and the Vortex Tunnel (which was this optical illusion where you walk across a bridge thing and totally think you're spinning round and round).  That was a ton of fun.
• Next up (through the actual rain) was Edinburgh Castle (fortunately only a couple minute walk from Camera Obscura).  There were a TON of people  there, despite the rain.  We read that it is Edinburgh's #1 tourist attraction and our experience there verified it.  We were able to skip some lines because we had pre-paid, so that's always great.  This is a huge castle complex, still in partial use by the military.  We saw lots of fancy rooms and dungeons and castle-y stuff.  All in all I'd say we were underwhelmed by the visit.  Perhaps somewhat due to high expectations and somewhat because of the crowds.
• While there, we had high tea in their tea room.  That was a lot of fun.  The food was good, as was the experience in general.  Thanks to Cathy (and Fred) for funding that experience!
• Next up (also through the rain) was a short walk down the Royal Mile to St. Giles Cathedral.  I'd say it was a pretty normal cathedral as compared to the others we've seen in Europe; medium sized.  It had a cool painted blue ceiling in one part of the nave.
• After that we stopped for a quick snack/drink in a little coffee shop (and to rest our legs).*
• Mary King's Close was next.  A close is a small street (6 - 8 feet wide).  Many years ago (medieval times), the Royal Mile from the castle down the ridge of the hill was the only main road in Edinburgh.  Going straight down the hill (perpendicular to the Royal Mile) were the closes.  There were five closes that were partially demolished, leaving two stories which were used as a foundation for a new, large civic building.  Mary King's Close was one of those streets.  20 or so years ago, it was re-discovered.  So what we got was a tour of the close and the tiny rooms/houses off it as well as a history lesson of the medieval times residents of that close (including dealing with the Bubonic Plague.  It was pretty interesting and worth the time/money.
• We stopped at the local shop for a few groceries and had dinner in. 
• After dinner, Grandpa decided he was ready to hit the sack while the rest of us took a walking tour.  The initial goal was Dean Village, a quaint and semi-historic neighborhood on the Waters of Leith (fancy name for a small river).  The village was nice, but what ended up being the highlight was the river itself, and the beautiful (and lushly green and quiet) path along the banks.  We spent about 30 minutes there and also visited the Walter Scott monument on the way back.  All in all it was another 90 minutes or so on our feet.  It was a lot of walking for the day in all!

*We continued our on-going corruption of Grandpa by playing black jack and "in-between", quick card games that we've enjoyed multiple times along the way.

Lessons we learned today ...

• There is no use for a car in Edinburgh.  We walked everywhere today, and it was definitely the best mode transportation.
• The Royal Mile was packed with tourists today, even with the rain.
• Pre-paying for tickets is the best way to go (when possible).  We used our Explorer Pass several times today.  Not only is it faster, but it is also cheaper!
• Having an AirBnB (versus a hotel) is fantastic as it allows us room to unwind and to make our own meals if we want.

Tomorrow we begin our journey north with some castles and end up near Aberdeen in the northwest of Scotland!