A rut is a rut is a rut...

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I thought that I would add my first entry on the actual first day of travel, but I realized that the preparation is part of the journey as well. We have been preparing for several months now, but considering the enormity of our task it isn't nearly enough time. We have saved as much money as possible, and planned things as we thought appropriate, but in reality this journey will be about enjoying ourselves and the road less traveled so we have tried to remain fluid and relaxed as much as possible. Who knew trying to remain relaxed would be so much work!
Today is my first day of being unemployed, and I was never so busy! We hired a couple of marines to come and take care of our jungle of a yard, the buyer is coming to pick up our living room furniture, and we have to pack the rest of a bedroom and the living room. I was at Home Depot at 6 am to pick up mulch and tarps...its 9 am and I want to go back to bed!
Some have asked, politely if confusedly, why we are "Giving it all up?" "All" of course being a nice rented house, great jobs, fantastic friends, and Washington, DC. Well, we are in a rut.
As ruts go it is a pretty good one. We both enjoyed our jobs, and we really do have the best friends in the world. We aren't geographically close to family (his being rather large), but we visited back and forth as much as possible. We only have the kids in the summer, and in a stroke of great luck my step son and daughter became best friends with the two girls living next door. Unfortunately, even a good rut makes you feel rather stuck.
We are very content with our life...but content is suddenly feeling very confining. Reading the travel guide made me laugh because I can definitely see a little bit of the "mid-twenties crisis" and a LOT of the "pre-house buying splurge" descriptions in our situation. We live a really great life...but just because it is great, does that mean it is the life we want to lead?
I know I often interchange "I" and "we" so to make it clear most of the things "we" feel are things that I feel, but my loving and supportive (some say indulgent) husband has agreed to feel them also, for my sake. 😊 He is the type that is content to be content, but he isn't the biggest fan of the Washington, DC metro area. He isn't too sad to see it go.
I'll post more tomorrow about our preparations and our planned itinerary. Back to the Home Depot for more mulch...

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