Traveling Is So Hard to Do!
View from our campsite, Sundance, Wyoming, at sunset.
Fresh tears gently cascading down, my hair catching some of the tears, sticking to my face, like honey to a bee, I was curled up in a ball, in a fetal position. I wished I could snap my fingers and things would be better, different, the way I wanted things to be, go back to my old lifestyle. I wanted my old house again and my kids to move back in with us. Maybe not my old job, but something familiar, with routine, purpose, and maybe, just maybe I could be happy again.
Traveling is not what social media portrays what they want you to believe. I do not have the perfectly pressed clothes that are trending, the most up-to-date colors, and styles. Hello Walmart? The million-dollar smile was turning into the debt smile. Hello repair places and anything else that was not planned? Can we even talk about perfectly manicured fingernails? All I see are nails fighting to grow in its natural state, with no paint to look pretty, and not even thoughts of one. Hello non-existent fingernail place? Can we even talk about hair? I would like to know how travelers get their hair so perfectly styled without dead ends or a messed-up hair color. Hello, trying to find a good hair stylist that will not color my hair blonde ever again, even when I never asked to?
Now that I have shed some light on the personal pain of traveling, I want to shed light on the darker side of fulltime rving that others will not share on social media:
Messiness: No matter how much I try to organize our RV, put things away or at least find a spot that the item will fit, it is still messy. I look inside my trailer and wonder where I can put things that are sticking out, laying on top of something or placed where it should not be. I have ridden of so many things in this new minimalistic type of living I hardly have anything else. You know those perfect pictures you see on social media with clean rvs, perfectly organized? Well, let me be the one to tell you that it is not true. Maybe I should get rid of everything and start over?
Dirty: the dirt is always there, even if you wipe, dust, sweep, mop, and wipe some more, it is still there. We track in dirt and track out dirt. No more pavement, even though that can have dirt, but landing on desert or forest landscape, with plenty of dirt and bugs. When you live in a house, the dirt can hide, like on windowsills, in corners, places you may put a blind eye on, but in a trailer, it is all out in the open, daring you to clean it, if you can.
Stinky: shall we talk about sewer hoses? Do you know what they are? Stinky hoses that take any wastes from your RV and puts it in a dump hole or station. My husband takes care of the stinky business, so I do not have much to say about that. But sometimes there is a smell from the toilet that can make you run away from the bathroom as far as possible. Are we that stinky of a couple?
Emotional: this has been so difficult for me. I have been homesick for my kids, missed the house we sold so we can fulltime rv, miss the state I grew up in. I want to embrace this new lifestyle, and I am trying. I have my good and bad days, depending on my mood and what has happened that particular day. I sometimes wish I could wrap up my old lifestyle and carry it with me. Like when you put your personal stuff in a suitcase, and possibly bring something special with you, something that reminds you of home, something that makes you feel special and give you warm fuzzy feelings.
Storm approaching our campsite, Sundance, Wyoming.
There have been times I have asked God why he let us choose this lifestyle. I know He has given us freedom of choice, to choose what, how, when where and why the choices we have made. He loves you and me that much to allow us to not only make choices but to live with them.
That woman who was lying down, crying to herself, wanting her old way of life, with purpose and meaning? Well, here is a link for some easy steps I did to help me through this difficult transition, from living in a house to living on the road in a small RV.