Travel Thoughts Will Never Go Away

The thoughts of traveling the majority of the year did not go away when I tried pushing the ideas away between March 2013 - June 2013. I shut my blog off, moved all the bookmarks out of site and tried not to think about traveling in any form.

Those ideas never went away. I really doubt they ever go away.

As some of this blog's recent readers have seen, I stated a few days ago I was done, finished writing on this blog. I decided to do that because I wasn't traveling, I had stopped thinking of buying an RV of any kind and I didn't think it was fair to my followers to write about something they had come to expect from me .... traveling and traveling with the hounds. That was not only the title of this blog but one of the reasons I started this blog.

Instead I started a 2nd blog to cover living with the hounds, maybe touching on some retirement information or thoughts but there will be no travel stories and no RV stories. It fulfills my urge to write and 'over there' I seem to be writing daily, as in the tone of a personal journal. It will be easier to find information and photos years from now just by searching the blog, instead of searching the hard drive though a million different files. I like that blog and will keep blogging there.

Ok ... so why I am posting here on this blog, when I said this blog was finished? For various reasons I guess. Those reasons ranging from online friends, blog followers, new people sending emails  of suggestions ... photos of what rigs to buy ... photos of where I could be ... and some hoping that I will stick around here and blog on occasion when I have something to say about traveling and/or RVs. Other's telling me by email they are willing to wait for my decision to read about my future travel adventures with the hounds, even if there is a chance that may not happen. While others suggest the best thing to do is stand pat and enjoy where I am.

I really do appreciate all the suggestions, photos and the different ideas.

I can also add myself to that list of reasons. I still have thoughts of both of those topics, RVs and Traveling. So at least today I am writing a new post. I can't promise where or when the next one will be  but based on my past frequency, it will not be long.

I use to bet on horse racing out in Del Mar Calif, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park on a daily basis as they moved from track to track for different seasons. So I tend to bet on past frequencies. If I were betting on my blog, I would bet that I don't stop this one nor will the idea of traveling in some sort of RV stop. It's easy to see reading back through the history of posts here.

In March 2013 I shut everything down and pushed away the thoughts of traveling with my hounds. Two months later at the end of May 2013 I was back reactivating everything and the search continued for the last year of working a job ... because? ... The plans, the urge to travel all over the Western states would not go away. Like now. Some will say today that I haven't given it enough time to go away, but I tried that for two solid months in 2013.

When I picture living where I do and no traveling or RVing is involved, I think of one word ... BOREDOM! In the past couple of months of my freedom, I will be driving down the road locally thinking "I need to get out of here" ... only to get home and soon after think "there is no reason to leave here". That's insane!!!

Thinking that way may prove that I actually need professional counseling or heavy medication.

I've sat here for another week not doing one thing out of the norm and I know that isn't what I am suppose to be doing with my new found freedom of retirement. It's doesn't feel right. I'm not a couch potato, nor a tv watcher but I am most likely a computer junkie. I always have known in the back of my mind, if I were to retire here I'd have to do some traveling of some kind, go cabin fever insane, or move.

What about the hounds? They don't care about the hot muggy weather or how deep the snow is, they do ONE THING during their daytime hours, 12 months a year. Here is their favorite positions. I don't believe they are wondering about traveling in these shots.

A lot of snow outside - Winter 2014

May 2014 - All Winston needs is sun

All Winston needs is a soft leather couch

Heidi sleeps 23 hours per day in various spots in the house.

Sadie continues to think just like her owner while she sleeps - notice the frown

The hounds are a factor though and maybe more than I want to admit when I have tried to decide about whether to travel or not. I read recently that animals adapt better to change then people. In that case, they will not care if I trade their 7 acre field for traveling to different locations with different smells in the Western states. Or will it make a difference to them if their environment changed every few weeks?

I just know today is one of those days I feel like I am going ding bat crazy when I think of staying here, doing the same things I do for enjoyment over and over and over. That gets to be dull dull dull.

I told myself in the past year, that if I was going to retire and just stay home and keep the lifestyle I had with a job ... then I might as well not retire, live the same lifestyle and make a lot more money working a job I no longer cared for. Makes sense doesn't it?

The more I think about it the more I feel my reluctance in traveling with 3 hounds is the main reason I am landlocked here in the 'tropics' of southern Indiana. I hate to think they are one of my reasons for not traveling. Yet, when I think of my past many years ago prior to hound ownership, I was on the move all the time. I think I can travel with the hounds that I have.

The mental roller coaster is back online and is slowly chugging up that first long steep hill ......

Negative Thoughts

I don't watch much tv but a few years ago I became addicted to a show that lasts only 12 weeks??, not sure...So I watched it tonight, this being it's last season. This summer after that show CNN has a 1 hour special where they send one of their reporters out in normal off the news living.

Tonight he was in Nebraska with a rancher, along with someone else reporting on the river traffic in St Louis on the Mississippi River….the major highway for transporting corn throughout the Midwest.

The theme of both locations….drought.

They were about the close down the river traffic because it has become so shallow. The Rancher in NE is about to lose his ranch, unless he is getting rain this summer. I could not tell which year they were in, 2012 or 2013.  I think it has rained a lot through there this year but I'm not sure.

By the end of two shows I had some interesting thoughts….no couch.  The trailer has no couch and during these two shows or the few times I watch tv, always, the bloodhound and the older basset hound lay under the coffee table and the younger basset lays on the couch.

So I wondered how that would be with the trailer having no couch?…just then a "brief" thought on selling the house….but more thoughts on what if nothing sells…the house, the truck, the Mini Cooper?? 

So my response tonight to all of this fast bombardment of negative thoughts I think is interesting because it is different than all the other times this happened to me. In the past when I had some quick negative thoughts like that, I would be outside right now at 11:40pm, pulling my for sale sign up in the dark…..but not this time.

I thought about what if the house and the cars sell….what if the house sells quick and I have not sold my vehicles yet….I would leave my vehicles on my friends car lot and sell them on consignment.

So I no longer wondered about the couch…..I saw the dogs finding their own sleeping/hanging out places inside the trailer once we came inside…I saw getting up early in the morning and after a cup of coffee, pulling out to a new camp within a few hours.  I saw traveling when I had an urge to go somewhere I had either been before or a place I've wanted to see and towing my house behind me…a bed the same size I have in my house, AC IF I want it and peace and quiet away from people, traffic noise, stuffed up sinuses, and to save electricity….a lantern.

So instead of freaking out with doubt….I have finally been able to recognize those thoughts (tiny negative voices) and then think of what I really want to do and that is to be moving around the western states with no yard work, tornadoes, freezing snow, boring work. Then pull into some small town for some gas, groceries maybe a dog park or a local diner.

I can't wait for Linda to show up on Wednesday to sign paperwork for her agency to list my house.….and I can't wait for my cars to sell. Her schedule was not open until Wednesday for us to meet and get the house on the market.

Looking at the "completed" listings on eBay on my Mini Cooper, there were a lot of listings the past two weeks and a lot of no sales and the couple that did, sold way below book value. My friend mentioned to me that it's August and that may not be the best time trying to sell cars or trucks because people are having to spend a lot of money getting their children into school, with book fees and clothes. I then remembered my co-worker telling me she was spending about $1,500 for her 6, 8 and 18 yr old to start school.

Still it only takes one person that likes that color of car, or the location or the low miles.

Spent the day cleaning....for just one person living in this house, its amazing where dust comes from. I took my biggest load of clothes yet to Goodwill, yes they are open on Sundays.  I am down to what I would call the bare minimum....I have a closet and 1/2 to clear out but that will take place this Saturday when I take 8 plastic tubs of sports programs and magazines that I use to sell online to recycling. Then I will have 8 tubs for storage on the road. The other part of the closets are throw away stuff. I even cut down my dishes and silver to a 4 pcs setting, even though I plan to use paper/plastic on the road.

Spent all day getting rid of stuff and as I sit here, it hardly looks like I put a dent in downsizing.