Who Does That?

One week into this blog thing and it’s already been brought to our attention that we aren’t very good at it. We were talking with our oldest daughter last week and she said “you didn’t do a very good job of introducing yourself or the purpose of this website”.... Well, she was right. When we first created this site it was to be a simple way to drop pictures and stories of our travels in one location so family and friends could get updates rather than us writing dozens of emails. But when that first post went live we received hundreds of views, comments and subscribers from all over the place, which was a bit shocking. Now my wife is pretty popular, but I also know I am far from it which means there are more than just close friends and family interested in this crazy adventure of ours. And if that were true, I should probably spend some time explaining who we are, how we got here and where we’re going to those less familiar with our personal story. With that being said, here’s a little about Us and our Bus….

So welcome to Us and a Bus, where myself (Brad), my wife Teresa and our princess dog Molly will be sharing photos and comments of our journey around this vast country. We’ll discuss the destinations and places we enjoy along the way and maybe call out a few that just weren’t all they were cracked up to be. We will also be sure to review the mistakes we make and the education (hopefully cheap education….) we earn from figuring out how to maintain a 33’ bus and the lifestyle that goes along with it. I figure if I have to pay for the mistakes, hopefully we can prevent the next couple from paying for the same ones.

So one might wonder, what would cause a couple in their mid forties (technically it’s still mid 40’s by my math) to sell their home, all their possessions and move full time into a motorhome. I mean really, who does that? Did we have an accident and hit our heads? Perhaps we lost a bet or a high stakes poker game? Maybe we are just plain crazy? Well, the answers to those questions are; us, no, no and maybe just a little. We didn’t suffer any physical trauma that pushed us to this decision, but I would say we’ve had our fair share of mental trauma in the past 5 years that definitely influenced the outcome. Some might call it a midlife crisis, but I prefer a midlife awakening.

Now before I fill you with a whole woe is me story, let me make one thing clear. We have a wonderful life. My wife Teresa and I share a fantastic marriage, one filled with love, respect, friendship and laughter. She keeps saying I’m not funny, but she’s always laughing at me so I must be hilarious. Point is, we are happily married and very much in love. On top of that, we have two girls that are the stuff parents dream of. They are strong and independent, hardworking and dedicated, loving and thoughtful and beautiful in every way possible. We have supportive and loving families, great friends and all the comforts anyone could ask for. And did I mention the princess dog? But… sometimes life throws obstacles and events our way that can change our perspective, change what we value and alter what we ultimately perceive as happiness. For us, that started about 5 years ago.

In 2016, Teresa’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, more specifically Lewy Body Dementia. We had seen plenty of signs prior to the diagnosis so it didn’t come as a great shock, but the finality of the findings did come with a painful sadness. What we were not prepared for with this diagnosis was the impact that it would have on those around her mother. Roughly one year later, Teresa’s father would pass from complications following open heart surgery. It was obvious to both of us that he died from a broken heart, literally. Watching his true love of fifty plus years slowly slip away, was just too much for him to bear, as he had shared with us on numerous occasions. A few days later, Teresa would quit her job and bring her mother home to live with us full time. Between my wife, our daughters and myself, we did everything we could to ease the progression of this disease. If you think having a loved one with Alzheimer’s is difficult, try living everyday and every moment with someone suffering from it. There are no words that can describe the pain of watching your mother slowly fade away as the disease quickly and relentlessly replaces her memories and her personality. Due to the quick progression of the disease, her mother had to be moved to a special unit for her disease type. A little over a year later, she too passed and went to join her husband once again.

While all this was happening, Teresa was in her own battle with Lyme’s disease. Anyone who knows much about this disease understands that it can be incredibly painful and debilitating and it can consume even the strongest of people. Around the same time period, I lost one of my closest friends to a lifelong struggle with personal demons. At 46 years old, one is never prepared to accept the death and loss of someone “your age”, particularly a close friend. A few months later and I found myself at another funeral, this one for a friend and co-worker and this time from cancer. Throw on top of all this, both our girls moving on to college, a big empty home and you have the making for a midlife awakening! Things really came to a head last fall when the job that I worked at for the last 15 years, closed the doors. I went home from work on a Tuesday night and received a phone call later that evening telling me not to bother coming to work tomorrow because the locks had all been changed. Well, how do you do!

So why share all this with you all? I don’t suspect our lives are any different than any of you reading this. We all share moments of joy, moments of sorrow, highs and lows. Our highs and lows being no more or less significant than yours, but I use them to give context to why we chose this path. Through all we have walked through, particularly watching her mother’s life slowly play out in front of us, we began to feel ourselves change, we began to see with a new perspective. For my wife, she started to loosen the grip on her burdens, of the things she couldn’t really control and let life happen. She learned to rely on her faith, on her faith in God’s plan and not her own. Me, I couldn’t help but think of the saying “life is short”. With all that had passed and all we had experienced I couldn’t escape the feeling that life was slipping away and we needed to start living before it was too late. Through different, but similar paths, we both realized that we couldn’t control the past, we can’t control what is to come in the future and we surely can’t control what’s happening right now. What we can do is point the ship in a direction, trust in our faith and ride the waves. We have made a conscious decision to live life to its fullest. It means that we are trying to be more conscious of living in the moment and realizing that today is the most important day we have. So, we aren’t waiting, we’re just jumping in and learning to swim along the way.. We thought, what better way to live on and experience all this planet has to offer than traveling in a bus with a princess dog, right (noticing a theme here with that princess)? So we sold our home, all our possessions and bought a bus. Holy crap we bought a bus!!!

So thanks for listening. I hope this brings a little clarity to our thinking or lack thereof, whichever you feel is correctly applied. We look forward to sharing all our adventures and sincerely hope you come back, drop a line and share with us as we share with you.

Brad, Teresa and the Princess