One.
I did a little cleaning up this week...on the blog! I don't know why Blogger has made all the changes it has recently, and I'm not fond of any of them. On the left side of my blog, you'll find a list of blogs I like to read. A few weeks ago, I noticed they stopped displaying the full list automatically. Only the top five on the list (in order of most recently updated) appear unless you choose to expand the list. THEN I noticed that for some reason, some blogs that have been recently updated don't show that and just fall into the bottom somewhere. Sigh. So I went through the whole blog roll this week. I deleted all the blogs that have stopped displaying (either because they've been taken private or they just don't exist anymore) along with a couple that unfortunately have changed in content so much that I can no longer recommend them. I left all the rest, including friends who haven't blogged in years but still have a published blog. (Sometimes I know things link back to a site even if it's no longer updated, so I didn't delete them.) If you are reading here and your site is missing, let me know! Hopefully it didn't delete anything it wasn't supposed to, but I don't want you to think I deleted you on purpose if you don't fall into the above categories.
ANYWAY! I say all of that to let you know that the list is cleaned up - and be sure to look at some of the sites more toward the bottom. Some of them are still very active!
Two.
Last Sunday, when Ryan spoke at a church in our area, I checked out their library and found a whole series of fiction books published by Guideposts. The series is called "The Secrets of Wayfarers Inn" and it seems to be almost 30 books long! The series has been written by a collection of authors (not a collection on each book, but seeming to rotate a bit) and looks really fascinating. The premise, as I understand it, is that three retired friends come together to purchase a home in Ohio, and they turn it into a Bed and Breakfast and cafe. Have any of you read any of these books? I kind of want to read the entire series now.
Three.
Earlier this week, Tamar posted about the High Line Hotel in New York City. I checked out their website to appreciate more of the beauty of the hotel, and I found this article about two dogs who got married there a few years ago. Their wedding cost more than ours! But I got a good chuckle out of the article!
Four.
I have not tried this recipe yet, but it intrigues me, and I'd like to give it a shot! A blueberry/cream cheese quesadilla breakfast. I think the hardest thing for me would be keeping the cream cheese minimal. You know...not turning it into a full cheesecake. :)
Five.
Our neighbors have this, and it is the coolest thing. It's a little table top fire pit bowl that uses a small camping propane tank. The bowl sits over the umbrella hole on the patio table, and the propane tank stays out of site underneath the table, connecting through the hole. We hung out at their house for a bit this week and were surprised at how much heat this actually gave. Plus, the ambience was pretty perfect!
Six.
It has been foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr since I posted a book review! That would largely be because I'm just getting back into having the time to read again! But today I'm wrapping up with a review for you.
One fun fact about this book is that I read it on my Kindle! A couple of years ago, one of my sisters gifted me a Kindle, but of course...I didn't have time to read right then. But I read on Instagram that this particular book I'm about to review for you was free on Kindle one day, so I charged it back up, downloaded the book, and read it from cover to cover. (Full disclosure: I'm still 100% team tangible books, but I do see the convenience of sometimes reading on a Kindle.)
The book is called RVing Across America, and it's written by Alyssa Padgett. I started following Alyssa (and her husband, Heath) on Instagram several years ago. Their account is one of my favorites, and they were actually a HUGE part of the reason why we began dreaming of one day doing this very thing: traveling the country in an RV.
This book is not Alyssa's first, though I have not yet read the first book. That one is called A Beginner's Guide to Living in an RV, and when the time comes that this is our life, I will certainly be reading that. But this book, RVing Across America, tells the story of how they got into this full-timing life and all about their first trip.
Heath and Alyssa were in their early 20s and recent college graduates - and engaged - when Alyssa came up with the brilliant idea to take a full year-long honeymoon, in which they would travel all fifty states. Heath and his entrepreneurial heart agreed immediately to the plan, and that was the start of one of the most incredible honeymoon trips I've ever read about!
They bought a used RV (without even really knowing anything about RV life), got married, and set out on their travels. They lived on quite a meager income that first year. Heath pitched to a company the idea of getting a job for a day in each of the 50 states, filming content about his experiences, and sharing his video and some blog posts Alyssa would write in exchange for a (small) paycheck. They agreed, and for the bulk of that year, that was how they survived.
The book tells the stories of their traveling and job adventures, yes, but it also tells about how they learned to navigate life together as they drove unfamiliar roads, dealt with RV breakdowns, delays, changed plans, and more. They learned to camp for free when they could - in parking lots and friends' driveways - and stop to regroup when it all became overwhelming.
Alyssa is an engaging storyteller, and I paused to read a few of their adventures to Ryan, because they were so funny!
The travels sped up throughout the book. At the beginning, her storytelling was much more thorough about their first few stops, jobs, and camping experiences. Later in the book, she merely mentioned states they passed through without pausing to tell the stories of those states. While I understand that the book would have been a thousand pages if she had kept up the thorough pace, I did want to know more about some of those later jobs and states, just as I'd wanted to know about the first ones.
The future full-time traveler in me learned a ton from her about how traveling in this manner grows and changes you. I learned it's okay to wait for that growth and change and not try to force it to take place. I learned that it's both good and important to find like-minded people who chase the same dreams you do in order to fuel your passion to continue. Not everyone has or understands this dream, and that's okay! They don't have to. But when you feel discouraged, surrounding yourself with people who do what you do is key.
My only true complaint about the book was on the very first page. She began by telling a story from early in their travels, and the man she was talking to used some less-than-savory language. I really don't enjoy reading bad language in books and will typically nix the book if I find it. I decided to see if it continued throughout the book, and it did not at all. I wish she would have edited his quotes to eliminate the unnecessary words, but she didn't. After that, though, the book was clean and engaging. I am glad I gave it another chance.
If you have a secret longing for this kind of travel, I would recommend reading this book. It gives you an idea of what full-time RV life is really like - a mix of the serene and insane moments. It's also just a fun adventure to read in general, even if you don't aspire to become a full-time traveler.
I'm glad I found the free download notice, and now I'm ready to resume planning our dream trip!
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