Our WAY Big Adventure

Our Way Big Adventure has officially come to an end…but not without a mountain of amazing memories of people, places, and experiences that we will treasure for a long, long time.                  Photo Credit: Always Photography

For now it feels great to sleep in our own beds, do business in our home town, and send the kids to school. I am back in the “routine,” of packing lunches, running kids to and from school and track practice, Scott is spending 1/2 hour each morning with the guys at the coffee shop before work, and the kids are so happy to spend time with their friends…I have made a couple trips to Petoskey, a drive I’ve taken thousands of times…and that drive, along the lake, has left me breathless each time. I guess you don’t actually need to travel far to see God’s handiwork. We have plenty of it right here in Northern Michigan. Lake Michigan has shades of blue and turquoise as beautiful as any of those in the Caribbean and beaches as beautiful as any in California…and, unlike many rivers and waterways in this country, we can swim here – no salt, no sharks!

We know that this adventure will give us something to talk about for a long, long time…and with time our children will come to appreciate it even more. We have traveled with three kids and 1 cat for 6 months, through 28 states. We hit three of the four corners of this country, but the northeast is something we will have to explore on another adventure. If you have been traveling with us, and have not signed our Guest Book, please do…just a name is fine.

Amber came home from school on her first day back and said, “Mom, the day was just dragging on and on…and then I realized it was still first hour!”

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So with this, my friends, I will leave you with one final thought; something to ponder, some words of wisdom that have traveled with us all over the country, and now hang on the wall just inside our front door…and words I hope our children will never, ever, forget.

You see, this trip was less about the country than it was about each other. It was less about places than it was about family and friends who live in places that no longer seem so far away. It was less about seeing the sights, than it was about realizing that the world is not such an enormous place. It was less about dreaming dreams, and more about taking the first step, then the second, and then the third to make those dreams a reality, and just like in life, it was less about where you’ve been, and more about what you’ve learned along the way…

People are often unreasonable, illogical, & self-centered;

Forgive them any way.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends, and some true enemies; Be successful anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

Give the world the best you have, & it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

-Handwritten message on Mother Teresa’s wall

Right now I have “to do” lists to keep track of my “to do” lists. Many people dream about “someday” but our calendars get so busy that hopes and dreams get pushed aside…

Hilary wrote a paper a few weeks ago for school. Her thesis statement is proof that her parents are rubbing off on her. “In life there is room for mistakes, just not regrets.”

While this has been a lot of work and planning, and knowing we will miss our loved ones so much, I know we never regret the time spent with our children, and the sacrifices made to make it happen. This is a gift for them.

We are continuing to make plans for our “Big Adventure.” This fall we will load up our three kids, Hilary, Amber and Tyler, and Pepper the cat, to begin a 7 month tour of this vast and beautiful country. This is really two plans, meshed into one.  You see, twenty years ago my then boyfriend (who had trucked through almost every state) told me “Someday I’m going to show you the rest of the country.” I never forgot that promise, and remember how exciting that seemed to me, a girl who had rarely been out of my small home town. I even took a United States map to my geography professor, who had many, many stories to tell about places in the U.S., and the two of us spent a good amount of time marking it up! Fast forward about 17 years and three kids later… Scott finishes hanging a framed chart of “America’s Great Loop” on our bedroom wall (his Christmas gift from me) and we stand in front of it,   promising to someday enjoy this adventure together. The birth of yet another dream…that became a plan…that we decided to act upon.

We started planning two years out. He had a business to get prepared to run without him there, and I needed a few more years of teaching kindergarten, the best grade there is. We also needed time to get our kids prepared. Right now they are at the perfect ages 15, 13, and 7.  With a lot of preparations behind us, and a major change from a boat trip to a road trip we are almost ready. Reality is that we can’t leave it ALL behind. He will be working by phone and computer  a few hours a day, to keep day to day operations flowing smoothly, and I will still be teaching…but instead of answering to “Mrs. Way” as I’ve gotten used to the last 15 years, all my students will fondly refer to me as “mom.”

We are still not letting go of our other dream… the plan to enjoy the “Great Loop” by boat together, but right now we are busy and excited for our WAY big adventure as we head out to see all four corners of our country, and many spaces, places and special people in between.