As I reflect on my third anniversary of my first attempt at FIRE, and my second anniversary of FIRE (one year apart to the day) my appreciation for life after money has only continued to deepen. The magic moments we've experienced during the last few years, living life absent the hustle/bustle of the American work environment, have continued to dazzle us.
My wife and I had planned to spend most of this year on the road touring this ridiculously enormous country of ours (I say that now having driven coast to coast twice in the last three months). Our trip was cut short due an old injury of mine that just couldn't tolerate seven months of road tripping.
I think some of our family and friends probably thought we were crazy. We bought my sister's (and grandfather's before her) 2002 Ford Focus station wagon with the intention of sleeping in the car. Maybe it was a crazy idea but I fell in love with the whimsy of it, the against the grain nature of road tripping the way the masses do, and the adventure of not knowing if the car was the right vehicle for us, or if it would even survive the trip.
Despite only being on the road three months, I think wanderlust may have been awoken inside of me. The sights we’ve seen over these last three months are seared into my memory. When I close my eyes I can still see the flat expanse of the Earth spread out before me with canyons cut into it like a cookie cutter through dough. The reds and golds and greens and blues, oranges, yellows. So many colors that I never thought dirt and rock could be. How can you observe a landscape and proclaim that it is the most unique place you’ve ever seen in your life, and then say the exact same thing at the next place, then the next, and the next? The landscapes of the Western US are truly a wonder to behold. If you’re a fan of the golden hour at all (my favorite time of the day) then you are in heaven there, sitting on a ledge, watching the shadows cast over the red rocks of Sedona as the evening light paints a masterpiece in front of you.
There are so many places we didn’t even get to see. Yosemite, Glacier, the Sierra Nevadas through King’s Canyon and Sequoia, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley. And what we did see was only one moment in time during Spring, many of the places we observed still had snow on the ground or experienced snowfall. What might these places look like during the other three seasons? I want to know! And this is just the United States. There's still the rest of the world!
We’ve only just returned home and already I want to be back on the road. The pull of adventure has me in its grip. The uncertainty of what the day will bring, what we’ll see, who we’ll meet, and where we’ll sleep has made me feel more alive than anything I’ve ever known! I felt like Bilbo Baggins, venturing into unknown lands.
For years I neglected my knee because it was inconvenient to give it the time it required. I started addressing my injury with rehabilitation over the year leading up to this trip but it’s clear to me now that my commitment needs to become fanatical. I find myself excited to begin this work. I suspect family and friends will probably view this commitment as crazy too, but I can’t stop closing my eyes to flashes of mountains and valleys and snow and wonder. My leg has to get stronger before we can set out again, and set out I feel I must.