Cross country with a squealing dog?

Our little maltese will be joining us on our adventure.

I am worried, though, because every time she rides in the car, she starts shrieking.

I am confused by this because she has ridden in the car once/wk (if not more) since we got her 1.5 years ago.  We have always made sure that car rides end in fun events as well as at the vet and groomers – I have tried to make sure that the destination is, more often than not, a good one for her.  Yet, she still cries and cries and cries.  Shrill, high-pitched squeals ALL. THE. WAY.  On long trips she eventually gets tired and stops, but I’m talking at least an hour into it.  I am afraid she will give herself a heart attack or something!

What should I do about this?  Do you think that she will just get used to it after we take off across the country, or should we do something beforehand?

– C –

We Need Energy!

This week, J and I decided to join a gym!  It seems like we are spending all kinds of money instead of saving for our trip, right?  Well, it’s all part of our decision to stop waiting around for the right time to do things and going ahead with them.  We used to exercise all the time – but lately we haven’t made much of a commitment to our health.  In order to maintain the energy needed to work towards our big adventure and then take it, we need to focus on taking care of ourselves.  And we are doing so today, not waiting around for the right time.

Any good workout suggestions?

-C

A New Direction Completely

A few weeks after making the decision to go on our big adventure, I decided to quit my job.  Strange move for someone who just found out they need to save a bunch of money, right?  I guess you could say that these decisions were related – it was time to take control of my life.  I had been very unhappy at my job for a while, and I needed to find something new.  So I quit.

Unemployed life was strange – for the whole 2 weeks (Thank you Jesus!) that it lasted.  I found a new job taking pictures!  I have always been interested in photography and this job seemed like the perfect outlet for my creativity.  So far I really like it – and I am very content with my decision to leave my previous job.  I feel better all around.

I’m super excited about our trip, but honestly sometimes I wonder if it will even happen.  The amount of money we have to save seems like an impossibility… and it’s so easy to get caught up in the material wants of today instead of saving for the future.

Any good “eyes on the prize” saving advice from anyone?

-C

A Big Decision

In 11 months, we are taking a one year journey across America.  We being my wife, dog, and I.  The plan is to take an RV trip across the country and visit every state.  Crazy?  Maybe.  But we’re doing it.

Two months ago, my wife and I were sitting around on our porch wondering what we were going to do with our lives. We both are blessed enough to have jobs right now when many others don’t.  Though they are a far stretch from our dream jobs, we make enough money to get by.  We love to travel and always try to take a vacation every year, but it has been getting harder to find time to take long vacations with our job schedules, limited funding, and a dog to take care of.

We started talking about what we have done with our lives and things/activities left that we wanted to do. Sort of like a bucket list I guess. After talking, we’ve come to realize that we have only met around 5% of our goals since we’ve been married (4 years). We were so dumbfounded at this realization that we then tried to decide what we could do to change that.  My wife also started reading a book that talked about taking some time off from work and taking little retirements in between.

At church recently, the pastor talked about how playing it safe in life is the most dangerous thing that you could do.  That’s what we’ve been doing our whole lives as a married couple!  God’s calling for people isn’t usually something that is safe and secure. God calls for people to do things that are dangerous or risky. We believe God has been pulling our lives in a different direction than what it is right now and we think that is going out of the norm and going against the grain in our society and quit our jobs and go on a journey and try to find ourselves again.

Will we get hammered with questions from co-workers, family, and loved ones about our sanity quitting our jobs in this tough economy? Heck yes. Will we have trouble finding the money to go on this adventure? You bet. Might it not even happen with this next year of uncertainty? Of course, but we feel like our lives and spirits are being crushed with the same day-to-day routine of going to work, watching television, and sleeping. We’re going to try to live our lives the way we want to as best as we can.

11 months and counting!

-J