We are prisoners of our routines. I know I feel like there is this hamster wheel I keep running on without the ability to jump off. Then I look out and see a glint of sunshine on our silver Flying Cloud that keeps winking at me. It seems to say “come on we should go someplace”. We just returned from the ice-cube travel to the Idaho countryside that took five days. We had a timeline, many miles and new lessons learned — NO MORE POOPSCICLES!
As we look at our work week and think there is not enough time or money to make another trip somewhere right now. Wrong, we live in beautiful Santa Cruz County on the Monterey Bay, hmmm. There are many state parks and national parks close by. The Pinnacles National Park is the farthest away at 90 minutes! Sea Cliff and New Brighton are 15 minutes away. They do need reservations all year round but well worth the planning. If you’re self-contained there are even more opportunities to run away.
When we first bought our beautiful Airstream I had many things on my mind, I did not want to rough camp, I wanted to be comfy, I did not want left over household items as our trailer pantry and stores and I did not want to create a large footprint as we traveled. I loved the pictures of others luxuriating as they “camped”.
The first five years were filled with meltdowns, tears, new lessons, forced communication all with new eyes to see our world. We have traveled from California to Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado. We marvel at the bigness of our country and the kindness of those we encounter. Again though that took up to eleven days to get there and back. That is too much time.
A friend of mine who lives in Aptos, California told me when his kids were younger they would get into their Class C RV and drive 10 minutes to New Brighton State Park and feel like they were worlds away from home and had fun like tourists do. Hmm hadn’t really thought about the local parks.
That makes escape easier and more relaxing. We have many wineries here in Santa Cruz County and Monterey County, Olive oil tastings, ocean shores, mountains and quiet relaxation. This doesn’t even touch on great foodie adventures. With our little Silver coach reminding us of the why behind our investment we smile. It is a new year with new possibilities for seeing what we don’t see every day. When I drive to work everyday I drive by miles of open beach, the Elkhorn Slough, miles of farmlands growing everything we eat but I just drive by and take it for granted.
We often lose sight of what we have right next to us because it is just there. Now we can see that with a little time spent on the State Parks and National Parks internet sites we can make a reservation and be on our way within an hour after work. This puts a little lift in my spirit and lets the stress release. I have made one day car trips to Lake County to pick up Six Sigma Wine, but it is a long day. Here I can go out of my daily circles and in 10 minutes to 90 minutes max, be in another beautiful place. If you’re prepacked with all your creature comfort have to haves, you just add a little sprinkle of your favorite wine, steak, comfort food and off you go! What we have and don’t see is what takes the energy out of our lives. We don’t have to go to Paris to find adventure. Here where we live, if we open our eyes we can find it here!
Canned Comfort 