OK, the title is a bit of a lie, and I hate liars, so let me clarify. Our Wagon is our fifth-wheel RV, and West hasn’t happened yet as we have to go north to get out of Florida, but it’ll be West soon enough.
She’s got a pretty name but a bad temper…
We were supposed to leave on Friday, but our plans were delayed when that nasty lady with a pretty name came whipping through with absolutely no concern for our lives or schedules. We had to immediately stop and put our lives on hold for her; She’s so selfish. It was quick: hurry, hide all the good lawn furniture, and lock up your valuables–you know who is coming. You guessed it, I’m talking about Idalia; make it Hurricane Idalia. Thankfully, she turned down her temper, but still, she spit on us as she blew by in the middle of the night. Sadly, she spit harder and blew longer on those a touch further north, but after she left us, she tagged in the goons that go by the names: Blue Moon and the King Tide. They entered the ring only to intensify the wrath she left and flood the Greek fishing and sponge-diving village of Tarpon Springs, minutes from my home. Idalia: You’re nothing but a pretty name with a mean temper.
She may have delayed us, but she didn’t stop us.
It’s Sunday, September 3rd, and we finished packing up the RV and cleaning the house. We realized our life of on-road and off-road adventures, sports injuries, non-sports injuries, genetics, and so forth had left us with a brief moment of peace and pain sitting across the couch from one another and wondering why we continued to push so hard.
Let me explain: Justin and I have a fantastic marriage (23 years, 32 together), but we also realized that we are competitive in everything we do; when we work out in our gym, we always try to one-up each other. If he does 40 pushups, I have to do 41 or 42. If I plank for 2 minutes, he has to do 3 minutes, and then I do 3 minutes and 20 seconds, and before you know it, we do more than we can and pay the price. Even when we garden together, we compete; I’ll plant this bed before you get X done. When grocery shopping, we compete to see who can take more bags. So when we were getting ready for this trip, and a lot goes into 4-6 week RV trips, we were in a silent competition. We list all tasks and divide and conquer, but we always try to outdo one another with how many tasks we complete, how fast, etc.
Our competitive streak took a new path this year, and our competition got really physical. For the last couple of weeks, it was: I can’t turn my head, then the other person, I hurt my lower back and the pain is shooting down my legs, then I can’t move my shoulder, then my knees are swollen, then my tendinitis in my forearm is flaring up, oh yeah, well my tendinitis in my forearm and the arthritis in my hand is acting up, oh yea, I popped an old rib injury out, oh yeah, I have a migraine from the spine injury going into my head, oh yeah, I dropped an entire gallon of paint on my foot, but I’ve got another foot, so I’m not complaining and moving on, then more back and leg injuries and all the while we keep working and pushing forward.
Then today, shortly before we left, I dropped a heavy part of Justin’s espresso machine on the same foot I dropped the gallon of paint. It bruised and swelled up, and that’s when we sat in peace and pain across from one another on the couches, me with ice and arnica, and both of us utterly exhausted, thinking the generation or two before us would rub some dirt on the injury and move on. But we have progressed, and we decided to slather our bodies in natural hemp, arnica, and MSM and suck-it-up it up because it’s taken us a long time and a lot of not planning this trip to make it happen (more to come on that).
Painful, Pre-Departure Conversation:
Today, as we were putting final items on the RV, our conversation went Like this:
Do you want your back brace just in case?
Yes.
Do you want a heating pad?
Sure.
Do you want your wrist brace? I’m bringing both of mine.
Yeah, better to be safe.
Do you have your knee braces-just in case?
I’ll get them.
I’ll get a couple of extra of those good ice packs.
Make sure you bring extra turmeric and all the other anti-inflammatory supplements you buy.
Of course, they’re already in the RV.
Do they make that Hemp, MSM, and Arnica cream in industrial-size containers? These little jars aren’t cutting it.
I’m not sure; I’ll look into it.
Did you bring our helmets and eye protection?
Yup.
Did you put a first aid kit on the RV?
I’ve got the industrial-size bubble wrap, so we should be fine.
Did you pack a surgical kit, just in case?
Then after we left, about an hour down the road: Damn, I should have brought that roller for my back.
Don’t worry; we can pick one up somewhere.
I did remember to bring the acupressure roller for our feet.
Where Are We Now…
So we drove a few hours, stopped just north of Ocala, and said, enough for today. We are at the Ocala North campground, it’s really pretty here. We walked with Quigley and ate a quick bite; that was all she wrote.
As for the trip, we have no plans, just that we want to go West. Because we are business owners, it takes us a long time and a lot of planning to be able to take a vacation. We have a fantastic team, and that helps tremendously. We plan all the time, which is why we don’t plan our trips. It is truly freeing to get in an RV, leave, and go wherever we choose. We are blessed to be able to travel this beautiful country.
So we have no idea what will happen. Stay tuned to follow us on our adventures West and see what shenanigans we can get into.
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