Life Is a Road Trip: Notes from the Road

By Nikki Greene

When Darren, Nikki and Larry sat around talking about selling everything, quitting their jobs and hitting the road deep down it was just something fun to talk about, not real. But when life gave them the opportunity to have such an adventure, they decided to go for it. Winnie, their RV, was their new addition to the family.
Nikki and Darren had spent the last eight years being married and building a normal life including owning a mortgage or two, climbing the corporate ladder and preparing their life for a family. All but the last thing happened so they decided to talk about all the things they could do if they didnt have kids including travel. It was time to stop talking and starting doing.
After 37 states, numerous breakdowns, Elvis sightings, the last Mardi gras before Hurricane Katrina, Appalachian Trail crossings and many other humorous encounters, they end up nearly a year later where they started with a new business and another addition to the family. The next adventure will be even greater than the last!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 20, 2009
• ISBN: 9781469113555

Nikki Greene

Nikki Greene is a partner at Indian Bear Lodge. She, her husband Darren, and her daughter Kennedy live in Walhonding, Ohio with their dog Scarlett and their RV Winnie.

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Copyright © 2009 by Nikki Greene.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

VOLUME 1

VOLUME 2

VOLUME 3

VOLUME 4

VOLUME 5

VOLUME 6

VOLUME 7

VOLUME 8

VOLUME 9

VOLUME 10

VOLUME 11

VOLUME 12

VOLUME 13

VOLUME 14

VOLUME 15

VOLUME 16

VOLUME 17

VOLUME 18

VOLUME 19

VOLUME 20

VOLUME 21

VOLUME 22

THE FINAL CHAPTER

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

For Kennedy, my greatest adventure.

INTRODUCTION

It was a little scary leaving, but exciting at the same time. Darren and I had spent the last eight years being married and building a normal life including owning a mortgage or two, climbing the corporate ladder and preparing our lives for a family. All but the last thing happened. For some reason, all of our friends were having kids around us in multiples, but we simply could not. After a couple near misses and multiple disappointments, we decided to think about all the things we could do if we didn’t have kids—including travel. We talked about doing all of those things people talk about doing if they had the extra money, time and lack of responsibilities. Why don’t we do it instead of talking about it?

One night we were in our favorite watering hole after our softball game and mentioned the idea of taking off a year and traveling in an RV with our friend Larry. We laughed at the dreamy idea and talked about all the places we would go and people we’d see. It was a fantasy but fun to talk about over a few beers. The more and more we got together with Larry talking about the phantom trip—the more real it became. We took the calculator out and crunched the numbers a million times and then had a few beers and a few bottles of tequila and decided to take the plunge. The next steps: house on the market, go to a million RV shows (fun!), make two million spreadsheets of budgets we’d need to stick to on the road, timelines, road maps, etc . . . Oh my God! What are we really talking about doing? We are in our 30’s not our 60’s! Shouldn’t we be building our 401K’s, not spending them?

This trip wasn’t planned. Our plan, or so we thought, was to work hard as we could, climb the ladder as high as we could, invest for retirement to travel, buy a house to retire in. Our plan was in motion. We just bought five acres (plus seven behind it) in Powell, Ohio, built our dream house and were planning to put in a pool. We imagined our kids growing up here but then it was just the two of us in this big house. Where was the adventure in that? Where was the challenge and zing of life? Did we reach what we were working towards? What were we going to do now? These were the questions we were asking each other. Everyone always sits on the bar stool and talks about the crazy things they would do—but most times don’t do. It is all just fun talk. We decided to stop talking about it and just close our eyes and jump out of the plane.

Before we knew it, we sold our house and moved in with Larry to save more dough for the road. Larry had just quit his job earlier that year as a welding engineer and was going to rent out his house and leave in two months to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. As we were in an adventurous state of mind (some say crazy), we decided to do the first week of the trail with Larry. So in February 2004, we drove Larry down to Georgia and started him off on the trail. We started at the Amicalola Falls Inn point in Georgia on Valentines Day. It had to be on record one of the coldest and wettest days in southern Georgia and we (the obviously of late crazy people that we were) decided to live out in the woods for a week with the animals and rodents—smart choice. Not long after we began our hike, it began sleeting and raining and didn’t stop except to snow the entire week. Everything I had on and in my pack was in a constant state of wet. On top of it all, my monthly visitor stopped in on the day of departure. This wouldn’t have been so bad but there are no trashcans on the trail and a strict rule that you have to hike out everything you bring in and I mean literally everything! Thirty miles later, we hike into a town (I ran) and checked into the closest Motel 8 we could find and I stood under a hot shower, devoured a bar of soap and scrubbed off a week’s worth of sludge. I was never so happy to reach civilization and vowed to never-ever do that again. I have to admit it was one of the worst weeks of my life but at the same time I would do it again if I had the chance. Of course, it is easy to say that now from my temperature-controlled, comfy chair in my house where I can go to the bathroom in privacy and throw away any trash that I want and not have to carry it around with me for a week!

We left Larry there on the trail in Georgia and headed back to Columbus to wrap up business. One of the tasks at hand was to pick up our Winnebago Sightseer in Cincinnati in May. The Sightseer was a 35-foot class A RV (Now that there Clarky is an R-V). We decided to tie a Blue-Ox tow package on the back and pull our Ford Taurus, which housed our canoe on top and three bikes on the back—now that was a sight! The first time I drove the RV, it could have been a spaceship for all I knew. It was that foreign and huge. Who knew that in less than a year later I’d be fighting traffic in San Francisco in this big rig like a pro?

Breaking the news to my Mom was one of the hardest parts about leaving. I was the baby of five kids and I’d never lived away from my parents. I went to school at Ohio State University to stay close and came home to visit at least once a week. We were very close and I knew I’d miss her but at the same time needed to do this. What if we found a town on the road that we absolutely loved and wanted to stay? This is something that I had to see if I could do.

So we had our plan in place, our furniture stored in Darren’s’ brothers basement (thank you), and our RV full of gas and packed to go wherever we wanted for a whole year! Larry came back from the trail at the end of July—he hiked 2170 miles in less than six months, which was amazing! For our last hurrah, we decided to leave after a weekend long party on Labor Day weekend with all of our friends. We rented out Indian Bear Lodge in Walhonding, Ohio, which belongs to our friends, Tom and Sherri Lechner. The lodge itself sleeps 36 people and is over 8000 square feet with 2 bars, billiards, dining room, 2 family rooms and tons of space for all of us. Indian Bear Lodge also has cabins for two all the way up to 15 people and is set on over 100 acres with a stocked pond, hiking trails and horseback riding. We contemplated just setting up our RV there for the year and not going out on the road at all! We couldn’t have had a better time and it was the perfect send off. When we left on Labor Day, we giggled as we pulled out of the drive and saw all of our friends in the rear-view mirror scratching their heads as they looked at us—did they think we were crazy or were they just jealous? I’ve got my journals ready as I plan on writing everyday and sending a letter every couple of weeks highlighting our trip for our friends and family. It will be like they are crazy right there with us.

*     *     *

VOLUME 1

We headed out into the wild blue yonder about two weeks ago now. It was a little scary, but funny too. We still cannot believe that we are actually going forth with this adventure, as I’m sure many of you are as well. Well—we really are! It’s done. It has taken much work to get to this