Home is Every Where

My very first wish as a little girl was to 'go somewhere, anywhere.' After high school I began the first step by moving to Fresno and attending 4C's a vocational business school figuring that secretarial jobs could be had throughout the world. With my diploma in hand, my next move was to Washington, D.C. My career choice was sound, but my heart had other ideas and answered 'yes' to the first marriage proposal and returned to Merced, California. Thirty years later married to a true wanderlust, my address changed permanently to Wyoming. At least that's where we have our mail forwarded from to wherever we end up six, seven months of the year.

Bob and I have gone somewhere, anywhere every weekend, every summer during our working lives and since 2000 every other day or week or month finds us on the road. For 25 years we flew our 4seater Bonanza to points found on a map, or an article read in a magazine, or told about by another flying friend. Now, we travel in a 36-foot rv and are at home moving to at least four spots during the snowy months in Wyoming. We maintain our home in Afton, Wyoming, just in case or until the housing market is tilted to the seller again.

From the very beginning of my wandering day wherever I'm at my favorite activity is to scan the local newspaper for jobs, apartments, and articles of what to do in the area. I play 'what if?' Bob thinks I'm crazy, "You don't need a job," he reminds me. That's not the point. In my mind I'm imagining myself with a life in Monterey, Everett, Mobile, Juneau, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Yearington, Silver City, Miles City and the list would fill the page.

I once mentioned to a friend that my problem was that I was happy wherever I found myself. She commented that I must be easy to please. But, I don't agree. Once I begin to explore a place and see myself making a life where I'm staying at the present time, I see possibilities. (must confess to one place I couldn't get a grip, Lancaster, CA) It isn't that I didn't give Merced a try, nothing horrible happened there and I wasn't run out of town and still love to visit to see family. I was just felt more at home out-of-town.

Last July we became members of an Escapee rv park, Park of the Sierra. Escapee is an appropriate name since the members are on the road escaping to all parts of the country and the world. They were all born under the wandering star.
If we ever sell our place in Wyoming, then we have a place to park the rv and don't have to worry about reservations, and in the future when our traveling is more of a hassle than an adventure we have a place to sit and enjoy being part of a community that understands home is where you are at.

Park of the Sierra is organized as a co-op park. All the members take part in volunteering their skills and time to maintain the physical aspects, administrative needs, and the social activities of the park's residents. So, while we are here, there's no sitting on the couch wondering what others are dong. Here, we take part in our own way learning and doing to make it a real community.

I'm happy we now have two places, Afton and Coarsegold to call home, but with many places in between that are potential homes for us to explore. Because, afterall, if we ain't moving we might be missing something over the next hill.