Day 333 / 32 Oh, The People You'll Meet

Ocala, Florida 50 Degrees – Sunny

I just returned from my morning walk, dressed in a
sweatshirt and feeling too warm. The sun is shining the winds are calm. I am
well aware that it is nearly 100 degrees warmer here than it is in my home
state of Iowa with windchill factored in. 
I watch the weather, feel terrible for our family and friends who are
enduring yet, another arctic blast of winter bearing down on the upper Midwest.

When we started talking about wanting to do this, getting away
from winter weather was the main motivation. I could not have known at the time
that the people we would meet and get to know along the way would be the true
reward of this lifestyle.

Seeing different places and experiencing different things is
rewarding.  Close encounters with nature
on nature’s terms have left a lasting impression on me and left me hungry for more.
Those are no comparison to the impression some of the people we have met and
got to know have left on my personhood.

There are two basic types of friendships that develop in
this lifestyle. You make friends with people near you in a campground or on a
job that are fun to be with and you get along with famously, but when it is
time to depart you know that you will likely never see them again. If you are
lucky, they will be Facebook friends, but even that will fade over time. Then
there are those you meet and make a deep connection with. These are the people
you will seek out each time you pass through an area, or who will contact you
if they are going to cross paths with you somewhere along the way. They are the
ones, you call on their birthday, the ones who take up residence in a corner of
your heart permanently.

Our short and disastrous experience with National Parks in Georgia put us on a path that led us to the company of some very dynamic couples here in Ocala.  When we leave in about 10 weeks, we’ll take some very special people with us in our hearts. Until a month ago I had never met anyone from Maine. I am getting to know a couple who have been traveling around some 15 years now, who call Maine home. They are one of the most down to earth couples I have ever met.  Another couple who we see daily are becoming good friends and have also travelled extensively and embrace the varied cultures of areas they have visited and lived over their 40+ years of marriage. When you spend part of each day with new people you get to know them very quickly as you talk and share your own insights about the world and your perspective as perpetual visitors.

Florida has been a nice mix of familiar people and new people. We have spent time with friends from home and a couple we met last winter working in Texas. We are forging new friendships with others we would not have met if we did not leave our family and close friends each winter. As the network of people, we know in different areas expands I am reminded of how connected we humans are once we cut through the socio-economic, and cultural aspects that define our modern lives.

We started this with no expiration date. We’ll do it for as
long as our bodies will let us. We know three couples who started the same way
and are now realizing they are approaching the intersection that will take them
a new direction. A direction that will require returning to a more static existence.
As I listen to them talk through their thoughts about their many years as
full-timers and the emotions of knowing they are at the inevitable point of de
boarding from this life I can’t help but hope I’m that lucky someday.  Lucky in the fact that they have all had many
years of this great lifestyle and lucky because they are both still active and
relatively healthy if not a bit older and realizing its time to slow down.

Some days I feel guilty for walking away from my career and
not earning the way I should be for my skill set, experience and education. We
have shed vast amounts of material possessions. We sacrifice 6 months each year
of time with people most familiar to us. We gave up a good chunk of monetary
wealth when I walked away from the career track at 51 years old. But, here’s
the thing. You can’t take it with you. Someday when this is all over and I’m
sitting in my rocking chair hopefully staring down my 100^th
birthday, with nothing left buy my memories, I will feel like the richest
person on earth. My humanitarian bank account is filling with experience and
the love of those I meet along the way. I wouldn’t trade the people I have met
and will meet in the future for a penny of 401k balance. You can’t put a dollar
amount to that.

On days like this when I’m feeling nostalgic and
philosophical, it helps that I have the outdoor breeze blowing across my
keyboard as I type, knowing that outside air at home would frost bite me in minutes.

Until next time…