It has been just over seven months now since we landed in Fort Collins. Our trip will forever be a milestone in our lives, like COVID is for humanity. “Pre-trip” and “post-trip” will be part of our family lexicon for good. Here are some thoughts on life after a big adventure.
It feels nice to be settled, but don’t get me wrong, whispers of our trip sneak in at times and rock our firm foundation. We remember the adventure of life on the road, the excitement of seeing around the next bend. And the best part, that question at the end of a full day, “Where to next?”
The most surprising thing for all of us is the realization that while we were on the road we often wished for the comfortable domesticity of a house. Yet, now that we have that once again, we yearn for the freedom and adventure of life on the road.
I guess that is just human nature. To take things for granted, to wish for that which we do not have. I like to think that for a little while at least we managed to live the hell out of life.
Fort Collins is good. It is comfortable. Life in the burbs is…easy. I never knew. It’s flat, the roads are all paved. I only have to haul my trash cans out to the sidewalk. Oh yeah, there are sidewalks everywhere. Internet is fast and phone service is pretty good. I live in a rental so I have no homeowner duties. Hell, they even send people to clear out the gutters. We get milk delivered from the local dairy farm. And I signed up to get my food scraps hauled away by a local composting organization. I never have to go to the post office to get a package. Door dash or Grub Hub or whatever will deliver any kind of food you can imagine. I can walk or ride my bike anywhere: stores, libraries, doctors, schools, you name it.
All this means I am getting soft. Life in the mountains makes you a little harder. A little more self-reliant. I liked that about mountain life. And the people here are little sharper around the edges. Maybe living around so many people makes you that way. In creating some personal space you become a little less hospitable, not in a conscious effort to push people away, but just to stay sane. The mountain hospitality, born out of a lack of interaction with folks, is starkly absent here. We notice it mostly at the schools. They are not the centers of community they are in the mountains. There are so many in the neighborhoods that they become a dime a dozen. Often, families are not even invited to holiday parties or programs. Wendy is changing that at her school. Good on her.
It does feel strange to think back on life pre-trip. I know Teagan misses her old school and friends. Ava and Wendy appear to be better at moving on. Sienna mentions things about Bailey that make me realize she thinks about it often. Teagan says she isn’t mad at me about anything except that I pulled her away from her old friends. She doesn’t wish we hadn’t gone on the trip, though.
So that brings up the question, “Was it worth it?” This a question I am going to answer at length (the short answer is of course it was) in my book. I have completed all the editing for what I am now calling Of Another Life: One Family’s Adventure Across America. I like “Across” because it gives a better sense of immersion than “Around” does. Anyway, the title is a work in progress, but it hints at how different our life was on the road.
And at how we can all live our lives differently if we want to.
There is no one way to do it.
