On June 22nd, I'll be traveling for a year (or more) around the country in my camper van. Sharon, my wife of 38 years died in March 2024 at 67 years old. Counting the time we were dating and falling in love, we were together 40 years. I retired last year after teaching elementary school music for 35 years. Our children are grown and living full, independent lives. The life I had as a husband, teacher, father (raising them), employee, commuter, no longer exists. I live in a beautiful house that I love, but I loved the house and the life I had inside it with Sharon. Now, it is staged for rental. The family photos are off the wall, the drawers are empty.
About a month after Sharon died, I was sitting in the living room when my daughter Eva came downstairs. I said, “Eva, I think I have my two-year plan.” She gamely said, “Ok, what is it?” I replied, “The first year, I'm going to just stay put and see how I can learn to live without mom. The second year, I'm going to go on an epic road trip.”
And here we are. I found the van conversion company, Sequoia and Salt, in Manasquan NJ, and rented a car to go check it out. (My Nissan Leaf is all-electric and only has a range of 135 miles, and there's a recall on it saying not to fast charge or it could catch on fire.) I knew right away this was the vehicle for me. It is truly a mobile tiny house, but it fits in a parking space. I took possession about a month ago, and have been obsessing about packing efficiently, while still bringing everything I think I'll need. Things have gone in, been taken out and gone in again. I'm finally happy with my setup, and I was even able to pack a bunch of my electronic music studio equipment.
So to the fun stuff! I'll be basically making a big circle around the perimeter of the country, with some dips in the middle. I'll be seeing National Parks and spending lots of time in nature, visiting friends and family all around the country, making music with my studio and doing house concerts, meeting people and hopefully finding common ground. I plan to post roughly once a week, but depending on what's happening, it could be more or less often. Mostly, though, this trip is to discover who I am in this new chapter of life, without all the identifiers that defined me for so long. I went through a few ideas for a blog name, but settled on Road to Joy. Not that I don't already have joy in my life, but aside from its reference to Beethoven, it seemed appropriate for the journey.
I'll leave you with a pic from my rafting trip down the Grand Canyon! This was a bucket list for Sharon and me, so I did it for the two of us. I tried to upload multiple photos, but the site editor won't let me.
