Maiden voyage across the U.S.

We bought a truck and camper and converted it to run on waste vegetable oil. The family actually came to our house to do the conversion while they travel around the U.S. in their motorhome with their four kids. We are so glad they did! It couldn't have been done any sooner. About a week later we took the truck/camper on a road trip back to Kentucky. Lynn had orientation for a program he'd been accepted into. He's planning on getting his masters as a Family Nurse Practitioner.

We love eating at this place in Amarillo. Coyote Grill I think. One of those amazing local joints that you wouldn't know existed if someone hadn't told you about it. (My brother who served his mission there...) Best burger I've ever had.

We put stickers on the side of our motorhome of each state we've gone in the truck/camper. The kids each take a turn putting on a new state sticker. They love it!

Camping in the back woods of Kentucky. We spent three days at this park in a small town in Kentucky called Hyden while we waited for Lynn to finish his orientation. The kids all spoke with strong Kentucky accents by the time we left. Seriously.

We saw Cumberland Falls and the original Kentucky Friend Chicken on our drive home. Once we hit St. Louis, we had to try Sweetie Pie's Restaurant (featured in Diners, Drive-ins and Dives). We even met the owner, Sweetie Pie. We also stopped at a flight and space museum in Oklahoma. It was really cool!

The Plan

I'm not really sure how to begin. I guess I'll start at the beginning.

About 14 years ago, Lynn and I began dating. Late one night around Christmas, Lynn and I stayed up late at my mother's home. I was home from college for Christmas break. Around 2 o'clock am, my mother woke up and told Lynn to go home. She was angry. She told him he was a vagabond. He was. He is. Little did we know what foreshadowing that would be...

We have decided to rent out our home, sell or store most of our belongings and move into a camper powered by a veggie-oil diesel truck and travel the world or at least as much of it as we can. That's a lot to take in, I know. Go ahead and read it again.

Why? Life is short and this precious time with our children is even shorter. Cora is already ten. She wrote an essay this week for school about best friends. She said me and her father were her best friends. I realize how precious that is and how rare. I want to bottle up time with that little girl and with her brothers but I can't. Time will march on whether I foster those relationships or not. I choose to foster them.

The short-term plan: Lynn is going to school full-time online starting in January. He will be working on his Master's degree and will graduate in two years as a Family Nurse Practitioner. I am still taking pre-requisites and now co-requisites online for the nursing program I am planning on attending in a couple of years. Lynn will be working as nurse per diem in an Emergency Room hospital in northeastern Arizona. He will likely be working every other week at first and then one week a month while we travel until we save up enough money for the next leg of our journey. The kids will be going to school online as well.

The long-term plan: Lynn and I have a couple of main goals. We want to serve others and foster the joy of service in our children. We want to have our children learn Spanish so they will have as many options open to them as they can. We want to live each day on purpose. No pre-conceived notions. No fears and obligations. Convictions. Plans. Actions. I love my family. That's why we are doing this.

Salt River Recreation

This summer while Cameo was doing her CNA class in Mesa the kids and I went with our friends the Shaws and some of their friends floating down the Salt River. It was a blast.

Decision

Oh I'm so excited. We finally did it. We made the decision. It's going to happen. We have talked about variations of our "plan" for years... All of the plans include travel, exploration, freedom. We made the decision. We are going to do it. I am scared. I am excited. I don't know if I can wait...

Up and back

One of the many things I love about this man is that if we wants something, he will do whatever it takes to achieve it. He's wanted to hike the Grand Canyon for years now but life has always gotten in the way. You need a reservation if you are going to stay overnight in the park (at the bottom of the trail). You have to make that reservation early. Well Lynn decided he didn't have the luxury of planning a year ahead of time so he was just going to go down and back the same day. He called his friend, a fellow freedom living fly-by-the-seat-of-year pants vagabond, who was immediately in for the adventure. The two of them left late Sunday night (so they could spend all day with their families). They slept in the car outside of Flagstaff that night and drove into the park Monday morning. They hiked down and back on Monday and then drove home Monday night. Yeah, Lynn was a little sore on Tuesday but he was happy to have crossed that one off of his list. Living the dream... living your dream. I love it.

This sign was on the trail at several points warning of the extreme danger of hiking to the bottom and back in one day. It expressly tells you not to attempt it. I guess they didn't realize Nate and Lynn are Super Studs.

1st Annual Sweet Tri

Lynn and I ran a sprint triathlon here in Snowflake a couple of weeks ago. We signed up last minute and didn't do the training we probably should've done but it was so fun to do it together. As we pulled up to the transition area on our bikes in the morning before the race, we couldn't help but feel a tad bit self concious of our mountain bikes, 5 and 12 years old. Both had fallen off the back of our moving van two years ago going 75 down the highway in southern Colorado. Lynn's was missing a handlebar, his seat was torn with the stuffing coming out. Mine wasn't much better... a constant clicking sound each time the tire rotated and I couldn't get it out of second gear without the chain falling off. Nonetheless, we wanted to support our community and just do it. The bike portion of the race went right down our street and the jog and bike routes were the same ones we usually ran anyway. We didn't break any records, but we rode and ran together, laughing at our lack of professionalism. What a sweaty blast!

Summer 2011 Part VIII

After the race, we went into Bryce Canyon National Park and went on a hike with the kids. My brother, Travis and his family were there, my sister, Arianne and her family were there and later that night, my other sister, Krystal and her family came to visit us. We ate dinner and roasted marshmallows outside the cabin we were staying in. Here is Ezra on the steps to our cabin.