A couple of months ago I was sitting outside on a bench and reading. Actually re-reading a book - "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coehlo. It was over 30 years ago when a fellow backpacker in Australia gave me this book. I remember being told that after I read it, I couldn’t keep it -the book was meant to be passed on. Absorb the message and then give it to someone else so they too could read ‘the fable about following your dream.’ And so I did. I gave it away and never forgot the story about Santiago, the shepherd.
Anyway, I was reading when something around me caught my attention. I looked up. It was a young boy riding his bicycle. I smiled and he smiled back. After he passed me I looked around and noticed the details of the campground and that’s when it hit me - we’re here, we’re doing it, we’re living our dream. I’m here in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and I’m waiting for our clothes to dry in the the campground's laundry mat!
For nearly 3 years Jay and I had been dreaming of this. No, not to move to Gettysburg to do laundry - to travel full-time in our RV. To see new places, meet new people, live our lives in a whole new way. And there we were. Nearly 2 weeks in and 670 km’s from home I understood that we weren’t on holiday.
With so many preparations, packing, planning, goodbyes and the excitement of driving away, I hadn’t paused to take it all in and feel the truth of what we were doing. And in that moment I realized we weren’t going home anytime soon. Our new home was parked among the trees just a few steps from where I was sitting. Our other home now had other people living in it. There was no going back - we were doing it. We were following our dream.