Friday, February 27, 2015

Embarking on new adventures



The open road...  We are yearning to get away for a bit. It's so cold and so hard to see the spring from my window next to the woodstove. The only newness I smell is the sleeping baby bundled up in her sling.

So it seems like the perfect time to hit the road. But we have a little something more than a vacation in mind.

We want to come back with stories.

Not just beach stories - we aren't very good tourists, really. (Tourism and large families just doesn't work.) We are heading out to uncover America. We want answers - we want to find out if there are other places, other communities, with firehouses and churches and cool little nature preserves, who have made strides in their struggle to become more resilient. We want to know if rural places just like us can tackle the big problems - like climate change and inequality and dismal economic conditions. While I know there isn't a magic bullet, I am still hopeful that bright, engaged people are making a difference. somewhere

I want to find those places.

So we are sending letters out - we wrote to Bill McKibben today, and he wrote back! - to find out if we can raise money and find those places. Then we are going to talk to those people and write about them and bring you back the stories. And take pictures. Hans says we must take lots of pictures. (It would be so much easier for him to just come along and take the pictures, but 6 kids AND a large dog in an RV... well, we just might need to lease the Tardis instead.)

And then we are going to learn from those places. And make things happen.

And so here's the kicker. We don't have much money, so we are asking for a little help from friends and fellow travelers (excuse the pun) to help us eat and buy gas. We'll be forging ahead with our 1976 RV, six kids (and maybe a few extras), a big tent and our sleeping bags.

We have a campaign set up at Indiegogo, and a Facebook page. Planning to get a more permanent home on the web soon, too.

You never know, maybe we'll get back and find that the next best thing would be to open up a general store in Medusa. You just never know.

Stay well, friends, and I hope our paths cross again soon.

April

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