Monday, February 16, 2009

When Life Gets In the Way of Your Dreams


A blog I have been reading [and lurking at until recently] is called RV Vagabonds. It is written by a lovely lady named Linda and chronicles their retirement and life on the road in their RV.

It has always been Pooldad and mine's dream, when we retire, to purchase an RV and travel the country, seeing the sites, meeting new people and just spending 24/7 together. Linda and Denny are [were] living that dream and their blog is a great read with fabulous pics.

Now, for the meaning of my title. It began over at their blog because they had to interrupt their retirement to return home to their native Ohio to care for Linda's ailing mother. It is a story I can completely relate to, not because our dreams have been interrupted, but because the story of Linda's mom is a carbon copy of my mom and all the trials, frustrations and well, just time expended to take care of her. It has interrupted our lives, but the situation for Linda and Denny has been a complete interruption of their dreams. Don't misunderstand me - We take care of my mom - gladly [as Linda and Denny do], but it can be trying to care for someone who refuses to help themself and with the knowledge that I have siblings [without minor children considerations as we have] that refuse to lift a finger to assist and live within 10 miles of my mom, while we live 400 miles from her.

Okay, enough of that. Please tho' - read RV Vagabonds I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Onto a second example of life interrupting.....and this is just sad. The links to this are courtesy of Linda and when I read the story I was in tears. Since I so enjoy the farm blogs I read I thought this may be of interest.

You can read the full story of Bob at Wagonteamster.com, but the nutshell version is Bob, wagon teamster, decided to take an adventure. He wanted to see the United States his way. So, with his children in college and nothing holding him back he sold all his possessions and embarked on a tour of the U.S. - via horse drawn RV. Yep! With the assistance of 4 beautiful Percheron horses and a homemade trailer Bob set off from his home in New Hampshire and has spent the past 5 1/2 months meandering [at 3 mph!] through several states.

Sadly tragedy struck in Mississippi on February 10th. The article is here.

I don't know what Bob will be doing now, but I pray for his full recovery and that of his remaining horses.

I think it is a worthy life where people can put aside what they know and leave their comfort zone to find a life that makes their dreams come true.

I hope in a few years we have that kind of courage.

2 comments:

Gail said...

Both stories are interesting yet sad.

We are the sandwich generation, sometimes still caring for children at home and aging parents. Like the meat on a sandwich, we are in the middle.

RVVagabond said...

Thanks for the kind words, my dear.

Mom finally acknowledged and responded to me yesterday (she's still on the vent), so I'm hoping that means she's on the way to forgiving me.

And you'll never know how much you helped.