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If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past year traveling in our RV, it’s to be flexible.
Water is fluid, flexible, and goes with the flow. That’s how I want to be. Yes, I want to be like water.
I’m a work in progress.
In the beginning of our RV journey I was so concerned with where I wanted to go, where I thought we should be, or the expectations I thought other people had for us. I became filled with stress and anxiety, which wasn’t doing me, or Eric, any favors.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the road had other plans for us and to remember we’re now on Nomadic Standard Time. I also stopped using the word “Should” and replaced it with the word “Could”. It’s amazing how a little shift like that can make such a huge difference. (Thanks Louise Hay!)
From Nowhere to Now Here
What started as a one-year travel plan, has now turned into an indefinite plan. We love the RV lifestyle and at this point we don’t have a deadline, so what’s the hurry anyway?
It’s easy to get ahead of ourselves and be so excited about what lies ahead that we forget to enjoy the journey.
I was especially reminded of this during our travels from North Georgia to Colorado.
In case you missed it, we recently shared a video talking about our RV getting hit by a semi-truck at a rest stop in the middle of Kansas, that then drove off. No one was hurt and while it was a bummer, it could have been much worse.
Video about semi-truck hitting our RV:
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Dr. Wayne. Dyer
Later that day we saw the most incredible rainbow and knew we were exactly where we were supposed to be. Eric got a photo of it through our broken windshield. Kinda poetic, don’t you think?
It was while responding to a comment on Facebook that I had an “AHA” moment.
I had mentioned we were stuck in the middle of nowhere and right there I saw the word “nowhere” transform into “now here”.
I’ve heard Dr. Wayne Dyer (one of my favorite philosophers, writers, and speakers) talk about making the shift from nowhere to now here, and realized this was an opportunity for me to do just that.
To be honest, we had no idea we would be stuck at that rest stop for a week, but we’re grateful we could stay in our home and had all of our basic needs met. We had electricity, access to water, and even a dump station on site. Our kitties didn’t seem bothered one bit and enjoyed bird and bunny watching from the windows. Sure the nearest grocery store was nearly 40 minutes away, but everyone we encountered was super friendly and Kansas now has a special place in my heart.
8 Nights at a Kansas Rest Stop – Daily Video update:
Eric recorded a daily update during our 8-night stay at the Kansas rest stop, where he talks about the steps we took after the accident, and why the heck we were there so long. You can watch it below:
Is this a test?
Being in Kansas also reminded me of a story my dad told me some 15+ years ago. He once mentioned a buddy of his thought “Surrender Dorothy” would be a cool name for a band. As we sat in our RV in this Kansas rest stop this band name and particularly the word, “Surrender” kept popping into my head. I like to feel as though I have control in situations, but have been practicing the art of allowing vs. controlling.
I saw this uncomfortable situation as a way to practice this way of life and it was easier than I thought. It almost felt like this was a test to implement the lessons I’ve been learning over the past year.
Kansas Pop-up Storms are no joke
We did have several pop-up storms blow through during our 8-night stay, in fact, there was a storm almost every night.
It was scary.
Luckily there was no tornado warning although the high winds certainly felt that way at times. The worst that happened was our broken side-view mirror fell off after a crazy wind and hail storm passed through. It was already dangling by a wire from the accident so it didn’t really surprise me.
While the damage may not look too crazy, and it certainly could have been worse, it seems the entire front panel has stress cracks, broken fiberglass and may need to be completely replaced, in addition to our side-view mirrors, windshield, and windshield wipers.
Our first Dry Camping Experience
Since we were given permission to stay at the rest stop by both the staff and local police, we decided it was best to wait for an adjuster to come out and assess the damage rather than drive off and potentially create more damage than we would then be liable for.
What’s funny is we planned to have our first boondocking or dry camping experience in Colorado. Instead, we had our first dry camping experience in Kansas, and while it didn’t have “my trees” or mountains, it sure was pretty!
An independent adjuster came out on Friday evening and gave us the go-ahead to drive it to a Colorado repair shop we had found. We had been in contact with the shop about our situation, and while they informed us it could be several weeks before they work on our RV, they have water and electric hookups and we could stay on site. Unfortunately, they closed early Saturday and were closed Sunday so we decided to head out Monday morning.
While this hasn’t been the journey to Colorado that we had in mind, we’re still learning to let go and take it day by day.
Not all rainbows and sunshine
We’re human and it wasn’t always rainbows and sunshine, we had some frustrating, stressful moments. With that said, we helped one another during weak moments and it was easier with two little words, “now here”.
Hello Packing Tape
We were told the windshield has a sticky material in between the layers so it shouldn’t break, but that we could put clear packing tape over the worst part of the damage as an extra precaution (I remembered this tip from an old Gone with the Wynn’s video which made me ask about it).
The officer that filed our accident report had told us we should be good to drive but that it’s illegal to drive without a side view mirror and to try our best to tape it up. We had to use a couple of pieces of wood along with Gorilla and heavy-duty Packing tape to get it to stick. Sure it looks crazy, but at least it got the job done.
At this point, we’re going through our insurance company because the truck driver’s insurance company is investigating the situation and can’t do anything until the police report is filed, which should happen by the end of this week.
We’ll keep you posted on the repairs needed for our RV, and how the whole insurance situation plays out. On the plus side, we made it to Colorado, woo-hoo!
I hope this post serves as a gentle reminder to be grateful for what you do have, and enjoy all the moments this life has to offer. After all, it’s the tough experiences that give us an opportunity to learn, grow, and evolve.
Consider making the shift from nowhere to now here.
Ah…. bless I feel for you being in this predicament, but…… as you say you have to think positive and it will all be sorted soon, and at least you are making a good thing out of a bad situation. Love the saying from ‘nowhere’ to ‘now here’ – this is so true. I shall look forward to hearing how you got on with your Insurers and hope the guy that did the damage has been prosecuted by the police for his ‘hit and run’ escapade. Keep your spirits high – you seem such a lovely couple and the main thing is – you have each other 🙂 xx
We had a “stranded” situation last fall. We were on our way back from southern Ohio to Michigan. Close to the Ohio/Indiana border we stopped at a truck stop and realized the barings went out on one of the wheels on the cargo trailer (we were hauling a 16 ft cargo trailer with our class C motorhome). We ended up stranded for 3 days until we could get the axle fixed ( who knew you can’t get a new axle for a trailer in Indiana where they make tons of trailers:(!). We ended up at Johnny Appleseed Campground in down town Fort Wayne. For being in the middle of a city it was a beautiful campground with lots of trees and a river. The hosts were so nice! They even loaned my husband their brand new truck so he could take the trailer axle in for repairs. What began as a stressful, negative situation turned into a great experience (except for the money spent on repairs). Attitude is everything. We took a bad situation and made it into an adventure just as you did. We met some amazing people, discovered a cool campground and have a great story to tell!
Keep up the positive attitude because having a negative one really doesn’t help to get thru the tough crap life throws at us ! We were traveling with friend and the wheel fell off her trailer. We were so blessed that a) we were not on the interstate traveling at 65 mph b) no one was injured not even her truck c) she was actually mostly off the road d) the people in that small Wyoming town were so helpful and e) we only lost one day getting the axel repaired . I could go on and on . I shutter to think what could have happened, and I say out loud every travel day God Bless Our Trip. So god bless yours
Lovely article. Thank you.
Oh my! Glad everyone is safe, including the cats!!!!!!
You made the best of the situation which is not always easy to do and things could have been much worse but making the choices you have is definitely the healthier and happier way to live. I have found that with age I am much harder on myself and less flexible, I am struggling to make the choice to smile instead of cry, looking back it seems that when my girls were growing up it wasn’t so much a choice…I was just happy and thankful for every moment of every day. So relax, give yourself time to take care of yourself first and everything and everyone else after, enjoy every moment, make sure it’s a habit that you never break.