The beach, the mountains, and everything between.

Well we knew what we wanted, and we knew where we wanted to be; We just didn't have any clue how we were going to get there, but we knew we had to do something. Some sort of plan that could lead to action, an action that would lead us to our future. Funny thing about living in Florida and close to the beach, turns out they have things like flooding and hurricanes. Which apparently to the insurance companies is the equivalent to liquid gold, and probably where most Florida income ends up going. We found ourselves asking "what the heck is an X flood zone?", and how far from the beach is too far to be considered "by the beach". Needless to say we quickly realized that life around the beach was going to be a hard battle. Not to mention the realization that we have kids in school, and it would be five years before we could even remotely start something. To say that these realizations were deflating and heart breaking would be an understatement.

It was okay though, because the beach wasn't the only thing we wanted to move toward. Callie and I have always had very simple plans for the future. We had kids young, and so the other half to that is we will be young..ish when they move out. Yes we want to travel and do all the other things married couples dream of doing, however the foundation of what we wanted was simple and easy. A house by the beach, a small cabin in the mountains, and a place where we could run our own business's. Not because we had to, but because we wanted to. It was a life built around enjoying each other, and living the simple life we deep down earned to have. However, the beach was out, for now.

"Well let's go north!" we both thought. As a family we just started doing real camping again, and the kids love the experience and actually spending quality time with us. We are a close knit family all the way around, and as parents it's easy to lose sight how much your kids really do need that time with you. Ours are teenagers, so the fact that they still want to be around us at all is something Callie and I wish to enjoy. So finding some mountain land, perhaps with a little stream or something sounded fantastic. It's not the beach, but it would be ours, and we can do family vacations on our own land! Exploring, metal detecting, what ever we wanted to do because it was just ours. So this seemed like a solid plan.


** Author Note - I don't plan or try to create any cliff hangers. Nor do I have some great plan to keep you earning for more. However, when it comes to telling just some of the crazy adventures, and misadventures my wife and I find ourselves in, I could talk for days about it. So once I see a post is getting long, I feel obligated to stop talking and save it for another blog. Hopefully somewhere in my ramblings someone finds something that helps them. If nothing else shows you what NOT to do!