On Heading Home
Deadwood, SD
When we left Chicago on I-90 West, things started to change.
We knew when we left Portland that this wasn’t going to be forever, but a year felt like a very long time. Halfway in, it felt like not nearly enough, so we got another 6 months. At our end date, we’ll have spent about 20 months total on the road. Two full school years for the kids, and with COVID interrupting the 2019-2020 year, that means the last regular school year they had was 3 years ago.
It’s been long enough to feel like, “this is my life now.” We’ve settled on daily and weekly routines for travel and schedules. We’ve made all the important changes and upgrades to the RV and truck. It’s really a comfortable, adventurous, fulfilling rhythm. There is a lifetime worth of sights and experiences out here to enjoy, and our hunger to do more has only grown.
We sure didn’t know it’d be like this. It could easily have gone the other way, with us rushing back to Portland last fall, bickering and exhausted, glad for the space and stability of a house. Instead, last fall we visited Portland and couldn’t wait to leave. Yes, it was nice to see friends and family, and the food is excellent, but there’s just so, so much more out there.
Applying our last new state sticker
When we caught up with I-90 last fall, it was fun and fresh and a little strange to be taking this familiar highway with such an unfamiliar purpose - just visiting. This year, it’s more like a one-way trip. So even though we caught up with I-90 all the way out in Chicago, 10 weeks from home, a sinking feeling started to creep in, like the end of summer camp. The feeling has deepened as we continue West. There is a fear that this may be the only time we get to do something like this. It’s not easy getting on the road, or off. We’re lucky to have done it just once - twice might be asking a lot!
We want to do right by the kids, and give them a school and community experience that is stable and strong. I could use a season or two of stability to treat my Lyme. We have aging relatives that need attention and help. Right now it looks like the best way to achieve those things is to return to Portland for a season and resume school there, as we’ve long planned. But to be honest, a part of me hopes that the kids don’t actually like it after all, and we can do this again - the right way, indefinitely.
