So we haven’t updated y’all in a little bit.

The problem is the world is a scary place.
Emily and I have been dealing with a lot of social injustice issues and the way we can help change the world even if it meant changing our own hearts and minds. Emily’s Grandfather had passed away and we were in the process of moving almost everything we own into a pod. June was, interesting.
I left my jobs, which was more terrifying than freeing. They provided us shelter and food. I have worked for eighteen years, and I have never not left a job to do something like this. Even when I moved to Scotland, my first day I walked into a pub and got a job. For the first time I am voluntarily leaving a job to not work and just be. It is an incredible feeling, not necessarily a good incredible, but still incredible. I have absolutely nobody depending on me but these pups and kittens and my wonderful wife.
I don’t need my phone on me 24/7. I don’t need to be somewhere at a very specific time. I don’t need to come home completely burned out from the awfulness of customer service. Nobody needs me to show up, so I am taking this time to show up for myself and what I believe is right.

Our first trip out was to be in Lake Charles, spending time with Emily’s family. We got the camper ready with new tires, thank you Grimmetts, and we had a lot of help in making Florence livable. *Florence is our camper* Finding out how to change a tire and make little fixes on the go will help us immensely while we are on the road. Our next stop was Alexandria, to see my family – a quick stop over filled with so much love and blessedness, that when we left Louisiana our hearts were overfilled. We loved every moment catching up with family and learning along the way, but it was time to go. So we drove north into Arkansas. Emily and I made a pact to only drive 4-6 hours each time we go somewhere, we have the dogs and the cats and driving any longer just isn’t fair to anyone. So we made it up to Lake Catherine State Park, where we found out that you cannot show up and camp out for the night the way we did when we moved to Washington state. Instead, the campsite needs to know of your reservation the day prior to your appearance, because we are in a pandemic. It sounds so silly for us to have to readjust our criteria from what we had originally ‘planned’ and actually map out places to get to before the day is over. We had wanted to just drive and figure it out from there – turns out that is not plausible all the time.

Our original idea is to boondock and live without a trace the best we can. Boondocking is only plausible in national forests, not state parks, so we have ran into a couple of obstacles with that. After some research we will be boondocking more north into Maine, again our original plan has changed from Canada to Maine because we are in a crazy pandemic and Emily and I are trying so hard to be responsible and adaptable while we continue in our adventure.
It has been, well, different.

So, after Arkansas, we booked it up to Chicago. We didn’t have a plan but to see my family there and it felt like the best place to regroup. So we have been in Chicago. We are visiting, regrouping, trying to install our solar panels, and come up with a plan on where to go and when to go. We did a ton of research before we took this leap – but somehow it doesn’t seem like sufficient amount of information. Navigating this new life through a pandemic has been hard. Not just logistically, but it has been hard on our families. We value our health and safety as well as each person we have come into contact with, and for that we have to be extra cautions of everything. Even when we think we are doing the right thing, sometimes it isn’t. We are human, and we make mistakes, but we are learning. So this update is literally to let you all know that we are trying to do things safely and responsibly – but we will make mistakes along the way and we will learn from them.

We will be leaving Chicago soon. It is time. I am pretty sure I have made Emily fall in love with the north, so I am pretty happy about that.
Yes, we probably will be going to see the Columbus statue, because I believe in doing the right thing on the right side of history. Yes, we have eaten tons of Chicago style pizza – because it’s my favorite.

So here is a weird update, all over the place – a little bit of how we feel.

Be safe, mask up.

Peace.
-The Grimmans