Let's do the time warp aggggaaaaaain! It's just a jump to the left... and a step to the riiiight.

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Hello, end of October. My, how you have snuck up on us fast. The majority of the last 10 weeks have been a blur of last minute purchases, downsizing, strategy changes, and getting our rig first road-ready and then on the actual road. But we did it! We have arrived! Today marks the 1 week anniversary of our maiden voyage! Hooray for us!

Most of the last several weeks in Ohio were about tightening up our set up. With six months of time to dig in, get comfortable, and spread out, we definitely had some adjustments to make before we were ready to travel. The short-list, and I'm probably forgetting something was:

trash removal - this was a huge task as we just accumulated junk and debris all summer long

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downsizing - yes, again - we removed Alex's sink table, both of our sportsman grills, and a lot of little things we just didn't need

replacing - we swapped out some mismatched bins for a cohesive set, replaced the litter boxes, and replaced the sportsman grill with a new set-up that Alex is in love with, new cam locks for the exterior storage

adding - new bamboo dispensers for the soaps, a bamboo utensil caddy, a scalp massager for the shower, some small touches to just refine our space and processes, a projector and screen for my resident "gamers"

fixing/cleaning - paint touch-ups, wire management, relocating our WiFi set-up, good bins for our storage area (that actually fit through the exterior access doors), the door lock, popping out almost all of the cupboard panels so we could access our pantry storage better

towing - we attached our weight distribution hitch and sway bar and are getting ready to make some further tweaks to the truck so it's a little less... squirrely.

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Amidst all of that, we also had a sixth birthday party, a seventh wedding anniversary, a family trip to our annual fall festival activities, and farewell parties with our families. It was a bit busy. I'm sure we will have more to say about some of these individual things when we get all the way to Texas and hopefully have consistent internet, daily scheduling, and you know... a bit more time. But, I wanted to take a moment to check-in and mark this passage of time and the absolute flurry it has been.

I can also say with absolute certainty: this is working, and we are doing well. It's a learning process to acquire the road-skills, to become aware of how to find things we need, to know what those things are, and to gain the confidence to do continuous travel. But so far, we have only broken like one thing, I have mastered the art of directing Alex to back-up and park, and we are comfortable in our home. Now that we are on the road that sense of the camper as home has been absolutely essential and helpful, especially for the kids. We are more and more grateful for every day we spent living in this rig before we started moving it. The time we gave ourselves might have been the greatest blessing in all of this.

More to come about everything above, as well as check-ins with the kids, the pets, and, what we have been seeing and doing on the road.

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a view of an open notebook, computer, coffee, and portable battery on a table in the woods with a glimpse of a camper on the left side between the trees