“Travel as much as you can, as far as you can, as long as you can. Life is not meant to be lived in one place.” This is so appropriate for the lifestyle we adopted, cruising in an RV. I bet you will never guess how much, how far and how long we have traveled nor how many places we have lived in.
Bill and I have traveled 30,000 miles in our two RVs put together. An
additional 60,000 miles are in road trips in our first red and second tan Saturns. On our ten months in our first year we traveled all of 15,000 in our RV from the Arctic Circle in the
Canadian Yukon to the Tropic of Cancer in Mexico to the Southernmost Point in
Key West, Florida. In the next 32 months we went
as far east as Nova Scotia in Canada to as far west as Homer in Alaska, traveling
the balance of 15,000 mile with a three-month trip to Asia in the middle.
Wherever the RV is parked, a campground, a friend’s
driveway, or even a Walmart, is called home. I estimate that we have lived in
over a hundred homes in those 42 months or an average of two weeks per home.
That was really a lot!
We are staying put now, months at a time in a resort. So
that has changed. But this does not come as a surprise for I have been relatively
mobile in the Philippines. In 54 years, I lived in 8 homes, an average of 6.75
years per home all in Metro Manila. Bill, on the other hand, had been even more
mobile in America and lived in 18 homes in 64 years, an average of 3.5 years in seven
states.
Fall in Blaine, Washington |
So the quotation is really appropriate for Bill and me. The
question is: what is the benefit of being this mobile and living not just in
one place? The other famous quotation of Mark Twain, from Innocents Abroad comes to mind: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry,
and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by
vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
I do hope that there will come a time when I will have absolutely no more bigoted views. That is why we will not stop from all our wandering. Travel makes me open to learn, be moved, and change.
Nice pic at the top. And I like the quotes!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Hope you will like the book, too, when it's finally piblished!
DeleteCarol, I still enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for doing such a great job. Rosemary
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Rosemary!!!
DeleteIt must be incredible to see life from so many different vantage points!
ReplyDeleteFor five years, yes. But now we rest and process all those insights!
DeleteWow, hard to believe Bill moved that much! And not even a military brat!
ReplyDeleteYes, he did! And I did, too!
DeleteWe feel very much the same. Travel opens our eyes and makes us realize how much people all over the world are very similar in many ways.
ReplyDeleteOr are different and accept the differences!
DeleteIt's amazing how much you've seen. Great quotes. Travel changes us - in mostly good ways I think.
ReplyDeleteYes, thankfully, in mostly good ways!
DeleteI collect travel quotes, too, for inspiration, reflection and motivation. Our decision to become full-time travelers at the beginning of our retirement was rather similar to yours because we had moved so many times during our marriage we didn't feel "ties" to any one place. Home can be wherever yo want to make it and for as short or as long as you'd like!
ReplyDeleteExactly! How long have you been doing it? We are on our sixth year!
DeleteKeep on truckin'!
ReplyDeleteThanks we will!
Delete