Happy, Wild and Free Again

We had a great seminar on Saturday at the Hitch House. We were warmly welcomed by the Hitch House team, almost like we were family. I think they really missed us. We were stranded here last year for about 6 weeks and that gave us an opportunity to really get to know the team. Wonderful people.

The seminar was packed. The organizers had to bring in more chairs. And yours truly started at 10:30am and did not clear the room until after 1pm. Clearly a lot of interest in the RV lifestyle.

Lorraine and I are by no means experts. We had a dream for our retirement years and we are pursuing that dream.

I promised that I would highlight ten lessons that we have learned during our time on the road so far. There are many more but ten seemed like a good number for the presentation. By the way, if you have an interest, you can download a pdf version of the presentation right here (large file at roughly 100MB). You won’t find much in the way of words as I am violently opposed to “death by Powerpoint” presentations.

Our ten lessons.

1. Life is short. We see more and more of our friends pass away, often unexpectedly. It comes as a shock and a sharp reminder to live in the moment and to enjoy this blessing and gift of life. Follow your dreams!
2. (re)Discover your passion. With an abundance of time, you can finally set your own calendar and pursue your passions and interests. People with passion can change the world. The alternative? Hang out in God’s waiting room. Waiting for death. Yuck.
3. Be bold. Achieving our dream wasn’t easy. It wasn’t a gift. And it took some bold actions, like selling our house and getting rid of a mountain of stuff.
4. Eat your vegetables. You know what they say, if you don’t have your health, well, life won’t be much fun on the road. You have a choice in how the rest of your life goes, and it can be great. The rules are straightforward: exercise hard and you will grow younger. Care about other people and you will grow happier. Build a life that you think means something and you will grow richer. This from an incredibly inspiring book: Younger Next Year. Highly recommended if you want to learn more about aging well.
5. Someone will always have a bigger coach. Collect moments, not things. And stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. They’re broke anyway.
6. There will be bumps along the way. If we accept the fact that things will go wrong, it is a lot more fun when they do go wrong. And believe me, if you own a motorcoach, something is always going wrong.
7. Never trust the GPS. You determine the destination. Follow your dream and don’t let something (or someone) tell you what to do in life.
8. Make a new plan, Stan. If you don’t like where you are, if you want a different experience, move on.
9. Pack one bag. Because that coach is mighty small compared to a house.
10. Take it easy. You worked hard to get this far. Live every moment, happy, wild and free!

There you go. The Cliff notes from the seminar.

It was wonderful to meet with many of the participants and to chat with them about their dreams.