Lx2 Unlimited

Today we finish the 8th week away from home. Before this adventure even started, I expected to head home for a week somewhere in the middle of the planned 3 months in order to break up our extended absence. The longest I have been away from home is just over a month. That trip covered over 7,000 miles and took Pat, Krystal, Shep and I all the way out to California and up the West Coast into Canada and back through Yellowstone to home. This was all done in an unsound, used VW camper. The first leg out to Denver area was without much drama, but from there on, it was one mechanical malfunction after another. I spent more time under the van than I did in it. It was a trip never to be forgotten; not because it was so stressful, but because we experienced more in that one month, than I have in any one trip after. It was a life experience worthy of a book some day.

Fast forward 50 years or so and I am still traveling, camping and enjoying this great country in which we live. But, this trip was to be different. It was more about relocating away from the cold than the experience of traveling. It was more about relaxing than sightseeing . This trip was to simply enjoy being; rather than doing! I think I can speak for both of us when I say we have spent more time looking within, than we have looking at the surroundings. When I say, “will it ever end?” I am hoping not. With that in mind, we have made reservations for the next winter season already. We plan to bring the camper down in November and leave it here till the end of April. After the first trip to bring down the camper and get everything set up, we will go back North for the Holidays; returning in the van will give us the option to travel around down here in our “tiny home” with its ability to act as vehicle and house. That way we can visit friends and have our house capable of parking in their driveway.

So, what do I mean by relocating? We came down to explore the area but partially because of Covid, we have spent most of the time exploring our relationship. We walk regularly around the campground with its soaring live oaks covered with hanging moss; we also enjoy the towering old palm trees generously spread throughout the resort. I occasionally take my bike out to travel those same familiar roadways. We have learned to be happy with what we see whether it is a soaring hawk or a burrowing sand turtle, and if there is nothing new on our route, that’s OK, too. We simply enjoy the journey with no set destination in sight. We have not even ventured out to meet up with friends in the area. Somehow those destinations don’t have the urgency I have experienced in the past. Hopefully, in these remaining weeks, we will make the needed effort to connect up, but somehow, I don’t feel the real need to connect because I can feel the connection every day each time they come to mind. Like many before me, I have often said that Life isn’t about the destination; it is about the journey. We are all connected in spirit and no amount of distance or time can separate us. Sure, a good hug from an old friend is true food for the soul, but so is the simple act of thinking about someone and in so doing sharing a bit of energy between us even if those souls no longer maintain a residence in an Earthly body. As I sit here thinking about each of you reading this post, I am sharing a part of myself with you in the form of words that you can take within and feel the Love contained in each syllable. I say with complete honesty, I love the soul within each of you. May you feel that energy and and make it your own.

Love and Light,

Dulany