Hi Sue & Joel,

I have been following [...]]]>

Sara is a virtual assistant who founded the Northern California Virtual Assistants Meetup Group. We’ve been able to get to know Sara quite well over the last year or two. She recently sent us a couple of emails that she has agreed to let us share as a guest post.

Hi Sue & Joel,

I have been following your blog. I think it is great what you guys are doing! I am enjoying reading your posts Where are you heading next? Do you have your two months planned out?

Make sure you have a good GPS, and good set of tools with you and your battery is always charged on your cell phones. Never take a detour if you are not sure if the weather is bad, and always let someone know where you are heading to. OK, those are my motherly tips for the day BE safe, have fun, enjoy, and experience life as it was meant to be experienced; meeting people in their own environment, face to face, seeing life through your own eyes; instead of what you hear on T.V, or in books.

This is an experience every child and adult should have.

What a history lesson. Fiona can really experience how others live, not just those in Roseville California. It is not always easy when your child/children asks you those difficult questions that most parents try to protect our children from. When you pass through a town that you want to lock the doors or a city that looks deserted because all the factories and businesses have closed down. Or where the majority of people have different skin color then you. If more people were able to get out of their back yard and travel around we would be a better place.

I would add that you make time for play groups. I would hate to think she has an imaginary friend That could be fun too… I seem to remember I had an imaginary friend. I didn’t turn out too bad!

This is from the Webster Dictionary: Guilt is a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that violation. It is closely related to the concept of remorse

Wow, for some reason I don’t see how you fall under the category of guilty.

So don’t have any guilt. You’re giving your family an opportunity to live outside your backyard and make friends with people that have all different kinds of stories to share about their life. And for a person to grow, they need to get out of their own backyard sometimes. Who’s to say when that time is? Live in the moment, who knows if there’s a tomorrow?

You have my blessing and envy.

Take care,

Sara

P.S. One more thing, you are not cheating the system… We created virtual businesses so we didn’t have to work for any one. That we could work on the beach if we wanted to. Well, you have choosen to work driving around in your car right now, home to home. What’s is wrong with that? You are working, making money, doing what you like, while others are hating life, losing their home, fighting with their spouse and getting fired.

So I say, when you pack the car, smile wide and wave good-bye knowing at least for now you have done the right thing. You can always rent a place again. You can even move in with your kids

OK, that will be $55 hr for my counseling services

When we asked her if we could post this as a guest post she replied, “OK, sure. If it makes you not feel guilty and gives hope to others to see that living is not just behind four walls then go for it.”

Here’s my challenge: guilt.

And I don’t even know, for certain, why.

I feel like I’m cheating the system. Living without the cost of a house and its utilities is less expensive. I know a lot of people who’d travel if [...]]]>

I wrote a few days ago that the real challenges are inside us; the journey simply exposes them.

Here’s my challenge: guilt.

And I don’t even know, for certain, why.

I feel like I’m cheating the system. Living without the cost of a house and its utilities is less expensive. I know a lot of people who’d travel if only their significant other wanted to, or the kids were older or not born yet or whatever; if only they had a job that blah blah blah.

Everyone I talk to says, how nice for you. Some of them seem to mean, that’s great; how can I make it better? But I feel, sometimes, like there’s a subtext of, sure, you get to go driving all over creation, dragging your wife and little girl along, while the rest of us have to have a real job and be mature and keep civilisation from collapsing.

Yeah, maybe that’s it; that’s where the guilt comes from, in part. What nonsense.

It is not wrong to live an unconventional lifestyle. I’ve lived conventional. For years, I had work (which I loved) which was in an office. I had other responsibilities in life which made a location-specific life make the most sense.

Now, that’s changed. We’ve built businesses which are location independent. Certain spiritual responsibilities are no longer mine, at least for the time being. Fiona’s school allows her to go where and when we go. My friendships are worldwide, many of them virtual (which I’d like to change, which is another reason to travel.)

The only value in guilt is when we’ve done something wrong and need to correct our path.

Nothing doing. There’s no reason for guilt here. I am making good choices with my family’s best interests at heart.

Still, it lingers, that angry voice in the back of my head, whining about responsibility, what I owe.

Ah well. I’ll keep listening to the voices that make sense.

As I child the only vacation I remember our family taking was driving to the Grand Canyon. Many times dad just took mom [...]]]>

Looking back over my 46 years of life (I’m not afraid of my age), I think now perhaps there’s always been a part of me that wanted to get up and go – travel.

As I child the only vacation I remember our family taking was driving to the Grand Canyon. Many times dad just took mom and us four kids for a drive on a Saturday afternoon. That was our entertainment (we weren’t big TV watchers). My favorite thing about going camping when my older kids were growing up was the journey of getting there more than the camping itself.

Yet as an adult I didn’t like the idea of not having a home and stability. I wanted to feel rooted and safe. However as the years passed there were many times when I just wanted to get in the car and drive – and drive and drive and drive. I wanted to pack up and go with no real reason, destination or plan. Yet I never did until I started my life with Joel.

Joel and I started our life together with a 25-hour road trip from Phoenix Arizona to San Francisco California. And then we took several road trips from Sacramento to San Diego during the next year. Our honeymoon was a road trip from our home in Roseville California to Oak Creek Canyon Arizona. We both love to drive, listen to our favorite music and talk during our trips. Since we’ve been taking road trips since before Fiona was born, I think she was born with the travel bug. Even as a baby she was an excellent traveler.

Now we often take off for a day and just drive. The idea now of living in one place (so-called stability) no longer appeals to me. Why does staying in once place equal stability? If my quality of life and enjoyment of life is actually improved by traveling, isn’t that more stable than being in one physical place – feeling stifled?

Yes, I think I’ve always had the travel bug and now have someone to share it with who is even more adventurous than me! And I feel safer than ever.

Here’s to our happy travels!

We crossed the 49th parallel heading south at 3:30 pm Wednesday the 25th of August after spending 3 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours & 15 minutes in Canada

Still to come: statistics (miles, dollars, etc.), impressions, achievements, and more.

Sue just gave 30-day notice on the house. She’d already called the phone company and pulled the plug. The two adult children living with us intend to be living elsewhere before the end of September.

It’s on.

Much to share about the trip and the future. But not tonight. Tonight, I sleep in my own bed for the first time in over a month.

And that doesn’t feel like [...]]]>

We pulled into the carport at 9:50pm, after 31 days on the road and in Canada. Unloaded and ready for a shower and bed by 10:30.

Much to share about the trip and the future. But not tonight. Tonight, I sleep in my own bed for the first time in over a month.

And that doesn’t feel like the big deal I thought it would.

What a trooper! A vagabond already at six. [...]]]>

We didn’t get to sleep till after midnight last night and then I woke Fiona up at 8 am to start the long drive back to home base. Her words as we started to drive away were, “I don’t want to be home tonight. I want to keep traveling.”

What a trooper! A vagabond already at six. We explained that we needed to go back to home base and regroup and prepare for the next big trip (Montreal end of September and into October – details to come). Sunday she’ll get to see her friends and let the see her first lost tooth. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see her big sister Rachelle.

Pretty soon I think Fiona is going to be letting us know where it is she’d like to travel.

Upon arriving in Portland at 3 [...]]]>

This morning we left Arlington Washington and drove down to Portland Oregon. We stopped in Olympia, Washington’s capital, and at the Farmer’s Market bought breakfast – great fresh fruit: peaches, apples, plums. We also bought lunch – cucumbers, grape tomatoes and a great loaf of garlic and rosemary French bread.

Upon arriving in Portland at 3 pm we went to the Starbuck’s we had arranged to meet some people at. Debi Leonard and Annette Pederson are virtual assistants who met with us to discuss their business and each got a copy of the action guide for virtual assistants. We also met Triiibes member Patrick Proethe. Fiona met a new friend – Anna.

We’re now catching up on emails and such while we wait for Troy & Nancy to call us back. (The phone just rang; it was Nancy). They’ve kindly agreed to put us up for the night. And I just found out we are probably all going to another friend’s house for a BBQ.

Tomorrow is the long haul back to California. Here we come!