We believe we should live life with no regrets. Regret is something that reaches inside and tears us to shreds. None of us want to be sitting in our rocking chairs later on in life and say to ourselves, “If only I had….” Life is funny in that there are no do overs. There are no retries. Mario Bros. lied to us as kids; we don’t get multiple lives. That is why we all must make the most of the one life we have. We must decide what is most important to use and sail that ship full steam ahead.
Before our family started traveling fulltime we tried to have as many adventures as we could. A friend of mine asked how we could afford to take those vacations. The answer was simple; priorities. If you were to look inside this friend’s house you would see many nice possessions. He had the latest television, the expensive couch, and new cars in his garage. To Marissa and I those things never mattered. Long ago we decided that memories made with our children was more important than any “thing” we could have. Our priority has always been to spend time with our children while that time still exists. No regrets.
The idea of no regrets has always been around, but it resurfaced explosively on March 20th of this year. We were in New Orleans and had been for over a month. We hadn’t intended to stay in the area that long but we had found that the city has a wonderful and unique culture to explore. The French Quarter reminded me of my childhood visits to San Francisco. Running into Cajun and Creole people was always interesting because you really have to work your brain to understand what they are saying. Our seven year old son, Joseph, was experiencing a mad obsession with looking for alligators and learning how many people are attacked by them. Mardi Gras was in full swing. I had always wanted to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. There are family friendly events that we attended, as well as one “family friendly” event at which our children witnessed things I had never intended them to witness. But…that’s a story for another time. Needless to say New Orleans was an adventure. Because we don’t travel with a specific itenerary in mind we simply stayed until we were satiated.
On March 20th we were preparing to leave The Big Easy. Our RV park reservations were up the next morning and we had our sights set on Florida. The plan was to head there and spend an indeterminate amount of time until we wanted to move on. We figured we might make our way up the east coast come summer. Life is pretty chill when you don’t have a specific itenerary. That evening I was on the phone with my father who lives in Alaska. I was talking to him about New Orleans as well as our Florida plans. He asked when we were headed up to Alaska. I told him we thought we would make it up there next spring/summer. He was quiet for a moment and said, “I was hoping you would be heading up here this year.” As we chatted he told me he had been feeling quite blue about things. He missed his children and grandchildren (all of whom live in the lower 48) and didn’t know when he would be able to make it down to see them.
After the phone call I was pensive for a while. I wished we were closer to my father so we could visit him, but he was 4,300 miles away along the most direct route (which we never take) and in the most remote (remotest?) part of North America. There was also the fact that the road through northern Canada and Alaska is really only passable to an RV for a short time each year.
After mulling over our plans for a while I approached Marissa and asked a question that was seemingly out of left field: Did she want to go to Alaska? Somehow she never seems fazed by my strange questions. After we discussed the conversation I had with my father Marissa said, “No regrets.” My father isn’t in the greatest health (it doesn’t help that he has an “I don’t need no stinking doctors!” mentality…I love you Dad. ;-)) and he isn’t getting any younger. Marissa told me that if we didn’t take this opportunity to visit him and something happened to him I would regret it for the rest of my life. She was right. There is no way I want to live with that sort of “If only….”
So, an hour later we asked the children how they would feel about Alaska instead of Florida. They were excited at the prospect. In three short hours our plan for “wagons east” became “wagons west…and north….very, very, very north!”
So…no regrets. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
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