Plot Twist!!

It Has Been Said That If You Are Not Correcting Your Course Frequently You Aren't Living Life To Its Fullest...

I tend to agree. This is why I take these course corrections with a grain of salt and don't let them bother me. I am sometimes completely amazed at how long I will grapple with a decision and the moment I make that decision and feel good about it, something intervenes and forces me to correct my course.

I'm going to be embarking on another adventure. Life, it seems, is made of challenges and adventures aplenty; despite my foot-stomping declarations of wanting to 'settle down' these adventures continue to find me.

Next year, as soon as possible and dependent upon money, I'll be making my way from Oklahoma to Maine. Not just Maine, but to the very tip of the state, on the border with Canada, near Van Buren, shown on the map above.

I'm excited about a new adventure and I'm hoping to get a camper before I leave so that I can make my way there slowly, stopping along the way to enjoy some parts of the country that I've never seen.

The East Coast of the USA is foreign to me. I've always wanted to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. I want to see Boston Harbor. I am so giddy as I think about all of the places the lie ahead on this journey!

How Did This Come To Pass?

A few months back I purchased a property in Maine that is much bigger than what I have here. It was initially the way I was going to get rid of my crazy neighbors.

Once I was offered this lot, I wasn't sure when or if I'd go to Maine. Just a short two weeks ago I had come to the conclusion that I should focus on staying here over the costs involved with the move and the logistics.

Still, if you know me or follow me on Facebook, you'll know that I often lament on having no children to leave anything to, being afraid that if anything happens to me that my animals will die without me or be impounded. Being alone is terrifying in those times that I allow my imagination to run wild with thoughts of all the things that could go wrong.

Enter Jake. . .

Jake was my best friend from the age of 25 to 28. Admittedly, it was a short period of time and a long time ago. My father died and shortly thereafter I was transferred to Georgia from Florida with my job as a manager with Morrison's Cafeterias. They went under shortly after changing their name to Morrison's Fresh Cooking and attempting to change 75-year-old Southern recipes into healthier choice options.

I digress. We lost touch with each other. There was always one constant though, a mutual friend named Paula that was still living in the same location. Through her, I was able to find Jake last year and get back in touch with him. As it turned out, he was battling cancer and was not in a great place in his life.

We've been in touch for many months now. He beat cancer and even talked about us and one other friend taking off for Alaska or somewhere. I finally came here to Oklahoma, determining that he was not prepared to make a decision.

I think he needed time to decompress and figure out what was important to him? He'd been staring down the barrel of possibly not surviving cancer and so I just thought it was time for me to make a move and let him take the time he needed. It made complete sense to me and I wasn't bothered by it in the slightest.

We've talked many times since I've moved here and he was aware that I'd bought the land in Maine. It has a well on it already and it has a septic tank installed already too. I was excited about it because it is just under ten acres, making it ten times the size of the land I have here.

Within days of making my decision to let that Maine property go back to the seller, he called me and had a deal to offer. He wants to pull his large fifth-wheel camper there and in exchange for doing so, he'll make the land payments over the spring/summer and would like to indefinitely stay there.

The conversation turned into wanting me to get up there asap and how we could install solar, fence the entire property for our dogs, get a cow and raise it for meat, plant a garden, etc. I told him the hold-up for me was essentially money because I can't afford to just get another cabin and so forth.

I also pointed out that I had to do things on a budget. (He's never really been hurting for money as an adult, though he remembers days from childhood that were really tough so he isn't completely naive to it).

I believe my exact words were, as I interrupted his reasoning on why it made sense to install $20K in solar, "See that's the difference between us. You look at how you can best leverage your money. I look at how I can get things done without having any money."

He was silent for a minute, being knocked off-balance by my words, and he recovered quickly, "What's your credit score?" I wasn't taken aback by the question because he knows I've had credit issues due to separation and that I've been working on it. It’s been ten hard years.

I told him it was around 600 and that I was frustrated with Experian having everything wrong, as usual. I didn't think much about him asking, is my point, because we both took turns complaining about Experian and talk openly about our credit.

He said, "Well, you can finance a camper then. I have a friend who just got one with a similar score. You need to just get a nice camper with at least one slide-out and you'll have everything you need - kitchen, bathroom, refrigerator, heat. You need a four-season camper like the one I have."

My retort, "Yeah but I can't get financed for something like that yet. Otherwise, it would be a perfect solution."

"You can if I cosign for you. I can get you a good deal, probably with no money down and payment around $165 per month. What do you pay for that cabin you're in now that has nothing in it?"

I'm still a bit stunned at how that conversation evolved. The fact is that the cabin is a lot more per month than a nice camper would be. I told him and we conversed more. The gist of it is that he is going to help me get a nice camper and see to having it delivered so that I can have something to live in.

My caveat is that I want it delivered here and I will then need to finance a truck on my own, so I can pull the camper. This will enable me to transport all my things and 6 animals without issues. We can live and work, as we travel, with no time constraints.

I'm going to be camping my way to Maine, hopefully early in the spring of 2020!

I'm going to take my time, work along the way by stopping at places with wifi and writing articles along the way. I'll be blogging as well, you can bet! This is the only part of the US that I've not seen yet. I've traveled all over the rest of the states, even parts of Canada by way of Upper Michigan.

I'm as excited as I can possibly be! I'm going to see where my ancestors lived when they first migrated to America from Scotland and Wales. If I can swing it, I'm going to stop at some battlefields where I know some ancestors fought.

The historical importance of places like the Statue of Liberty will draw me to a stop there too. Washington DC warrants a day or two. It may take me a month on the road and I'm fine with that since I can work as I go.

In the end, I will be splitting the property with a really good friend, so I won't feel alone. He and I are similar in that we like our privacy so he won't bother me being right next door.

He'll text before he comes over or sees if it is okay. He'll respect my privacy and the need for peace and quiet. In fact, he said, "I just want a place where I can sit on the deck and read a book, with a drink. Alone."

He has said many times that he wants to be alone, without really being alone. This resonates with me and I understand it. I enjoy being alone but I have fears and nightmares of what happens when something goes wrong.

While it's true that I've come to be very resourceful, it's truly exhausting to be concerned about it all the time. I get weary and it would be nice to just have someone to pop a beer open with and watch the sunset and know that they have my back. While I like being alone, I don't want to be isolated completely.

I think there are other people out there who can comprehend exactly what I mean? It's a problem for those with Asperger's or autism. Being alone is a preference but sometimes you look up from your project, or thoughts, your obsession of the day, and you realize that there isn't a sign of shoreline and you're adrift, alone. It's scary.

** If you enjoy reading my musings and look forward to learning about homesteading, traveling, and following our adventures, please consider becoming a Patreon for us - the critters and I - by visiting us at www.Patreon.com/ShambalaRockFarm and becoming a Patron with a monthly gift, or by leaving us a tip here to help go toward the costs of the travel, the fund to put a down payment on a truck, or just to help feed one of my rescue dogs or cats. Hannah, Daisy, Finn, Alex, Quentin, and Gracie would all be thankful for the extra treat money.