Day 39 / 326

Leavenworth, Kansas  Snowing 36 degrees

Today as I pondered the question asked so often, it occurred to me that when you engage in the full-time RV lifestyle you are acutely aware at how disconnected you become from what was once familiar and nearby on a daily basis. Today a new feeling began to resonate with me. The void that is created when you are away from close friends and family creates space and time to become better connected with others. You make new friends in the places you visit and that network of 'on-the-road family' grows. You also find yourself in parts of the country where extended family or old school friends now live.

This weekend is a perfect example. We stopped in Kansas to see my cousin Jeff and his wife Kathi. We have spent short periods of time at large gatherings a couple of times over the past four years. Even though we saw them there the distractions of the event and number of people around us prevented more than superficial conversation from taking place.  We are family,  yet virtual strangers. Geography and his military career plus a nine year age difference have placed us on different planes over the years. Even though the past decade or so we have been within 300 miles of each other, our paths never really crossed till four years ago when his family joined us with my Aunt Pat (his mother) in Lindsborg for the Swedish Festival. Our trek across the country this spring, set our path right through this area and we took advantage of the opportunity to stop and spend some real time.

Many of us have family strewn around the country or even just across town that we don't connect with often, for no particular reason. I am no exception. As I get older it has become more important  to me to maintain as well as establish connections with extended family and get to know each other.  This lifestyle is the conduit that opened these doors for us. Last winter we visited two of Champ's aunts in Texas. We had not seen either one of them since his mothers funeral in 2007. The lifestyle placed us near them and gave us a chance to spend time with them.

In a world when we know family or old friends exist in other parts of the country, most don't make it a point to travel around seeing them. We are too busy living our lives and grinding along in our routines.  Those connections are were real wealth lies. 

Until tomorrow...