Things are going to get complicated. It’s all good, but it’s going to be an adjustment. For the past 18 months, programming has been non-existent. We have done some virtual engagements. We have led some distanced learning, but for the most part, on March 16 and 17 of 2020, everything on our plate cancelled and the world came to a screeching halt.
After scratching our heads for a bit we sold our house, bought the RV and hit the road. It’s been 10 months since then…close enough to call it a year, and we have simply focused on building new content. In many ways, it’s been an adventure. A rare window of opportunity in a busy life. In many ways, this season has been simple and focused, and directed by the stories that need to be told.
That’s about to change. I think.
Our fall schedule is filled with programming, and hopefully the pandemic will let that happen. We’ve already had one in-person event shift to virtual just five days after it was confirmed in-person. The key is going to be flexibility. Letting go. And if there’s one thing we’ve gotten good at in this past year, it’s navigating uncertainty.
If all goes well, we will lead programming in NYC, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Montana, West Virginia, Los Angeles and Seattle in the next few months. Hardly a straight line. And we won’t be able to drive it all. So, we will park the trailer, catch a flight and return to our rolling home after each engagement.
In a few weeks we are headed back to the upper Midwest to attend our niece’s wedding, to install exhibits and lead programming in Wisconsin, to launch a book in Minneapolis, and to catch up with family and friends.
That means we have to find a place to leave the trailer in the Pacific Northwest. It took about 17 phone calls to find a shop that would service our RV and hold it in their lot for weeks until we return. Leaving our truck in Washington means renting a car for almost a month when we fly into Chicago. Have you tried doing that lately? The cheapest car we can find is about $3,000 for four weeks, so we are exploring…ummm….non-traditional solutions.
We have about 12 different camping reservations for the next few months. Plus some Airbnb stays, plus a house sitting gig. Plus plenty of dates where we don’t yet know where we will lay our heads at night.
I will be a guest on at least 7 different podcasts in the next few weeks as we launch the new book, and I am crossing my fingers extra hard that I can wrangle good WIFI for the appointed times (our biggest struggle on the road). Every campground we have stayed at advertises “reliable WIFI.” Exactly two of them delivered. There are dozens of ways to spend hundreds of dollars to boost your signal, but to the best of our knowledge, none of them work outside of the advertisements they post. So we are eternally in pursuit of a coffee shop where we can camp out while we caffeinate and leave good tips in gratitude.
If I allow it, the whole stew overwhelms me. But at the end of the day, it all works out. Letting go is a part of the plan. Taking things one day at a time is the goal. Walking through open doors…accepting what is offered…following the muse and the spirit and the intuition…and trusting that all will be well…
Our friends in Oregon have a beat up bumper sticker on their beat up van that says, “I’m not lost, I’m exploring.”
Yeah…give me some more of that.