As I post this, we are headed “home” to Woody from an excursion to San Diego! 🙂 More on that later.

March rundown:

• Our “rent” was $650. Wow what a deal! Full hook ups, mineral hot springs, pool, basketball hoop, horseshoes, rec room, gym, grassy play areas, etc! In SoCal! (And the kids wanted to make sure that I mentioned the office sold ice cream and popcorn which they loved.)
• Laundry = $30
• Gas = $590 – pretty good for going from Texas to Cali! Especially because it’s $3 / gallon here in CA.
• Not really sure what other stats would be good to keep !? Haha

Adventure rundown:

• We’ve now been on this journey for 86 days!

• We’ve gone to 11 states

• Woody (with us in him haha) has stayed overnight in 11 different RV Parks, state parks, county parks, or Harvest Host sites. What was his fave? Probably this spot below. He really yearns for more remote wilderness adventures 🙂 .

• I wanted to keep track of how many meals we eat outside but I didn’t. It’s just a lot! I pretty much try to cook dinner outside every night. And most days we have lunch and dinner outside.
• We’re done with our cowboy hat count. We got to 50 and the last one was a sweet little hat tip in Costco here in Cali. We decided it was a perfect one to end on!
• I never thought I’d say this but we love finding a Walmart close to where we are that has parking lot pick up! Omgoodness so easy and quick! It’s saved us so much time so we can spend more time adventuring. 🙂
• Woody & Betty are doing great. They’re just an amazing team really!

• Betty is such a pretty little thing but boy is she strong

• Woody blew his first (Nike) shoe which I already posted about.
• His hat (awning) lost a bolt so thats unusable until we figure out where to get the right bolt or get to a dealer to fix it since he’s still under warranty.
• I am not sure what to call this — maybe his stuffing? — but the small little few inches of “carpet” inside under the couch and table are looking terrible.
• BUT – all these cosmetic things are no problemo. Like the real Woody – some wear and tear is just showing how well loved he is!
• We know how to take care of him and even the girls enjoy doing the jacks and different things. He does need a shower though.

This adventure has been amazing so far!!! We are very thankful and really are learning so much and are bonding more and more. It hasn’t been too difficult to live out of Woody because of all the fun things to do in the parks and out n about. Having such amazing weather has made all of this RV living so much easier! I am not sure I can deal with a rainy or cold season anymore. I’m forever spoiled after chasing the beautiful weather like we have!

I would say the hard part of this journey is missing our loved ones and missing just being known. It’s sort of exhausting always having the same introductory conversations with people and not getting too deep. Anybody who knows me knows that’s where I like to stay in conversation :). Forget the shallow end – just plunge in the deep end with me! B and the kids and I certainly swim there regularly … but we’re all made for close friendships, deep conversation, and relationships outside of the nuclear.

We have gotten into deep convos with strangers a few times – some of which I’ve talked about – but most of the times it’s just brief chit chat. I remind myself that the 5 of us and these 12 relationships between the 5 have been the focus of this journey. We do keep our hearts and eyes open to anybody we feel the Lord has brought intentionally to our paths for a deeper conversation than the usuals (like our neighbors right now that I posted about!). But we aren’t as outward-focused as we were … or as we will be. I want to devote these months to US, which is what we felt the Lord asking us to do.

The kids find other kiddos to play with everywhere. No intros needed. Just play! Kids are awesome like that. Even with kids that don’t speak English. Smiles and silly are universal.

If anybody is curious what I mean by the 12 relationships between us.

• B and R
• B and RR
• B and E
• B and A
• R and RR
• R and E
• R and A
• RR and E
• RR and A
• E and A
• Kids all together RR – E – A
• All 5 of us together

That’s 12! So there’s a lot of different dynamics going on everywhere and all kinds of things we can work on. We are really seeing some great progress.

By the way Mommy friends: be prepared that through this process I see more than ever how much more intentional “we” need to be about relationships. I can assure you I have new determination to set aside a night a month for Ladies night and I hope B gets a night for guys too. Forget the excuse of “busy”. Seeing each other in passing at activities isn’t enough. We make time for what we feel is important and I *know* God designed me for friendships with other ladies. Even though I’m still doing BSF (online) – I miss encouraging and being encouraged by my friends. I am determined to live different than the “too busy”, frantic pace culture. I will seek out those who the Lord has convicted similarly – with a hunger for deeper connection and community.

So all that being said – our goal is still to finish our adventure in NJ in November and then head to NC in December! We are not sure what happens after December but we are praying praying praying!

Here’s what the travel route looks like… and of course that could change!

Thanks for following along :). Love you all!