Vintage Caravan Magazine Issue 40 | Page 5

�EDITOR'S RAVE� I’m writing this from the seat of a plane bound for Texas on my trusty laptop that only hours ago was in the hands of a thief. The lady who had been sitting next to me in my previous flight from Oregon to L.A. stole my computer and was already on the shuttle bus to her connecting flight to Las Vegas with my computer in her hands before I realized it was gone. I am forever thankful to my amazing aptly named American Airlines steward “Treasure” (yes, that really was her name!) who ran like a bolt of lightning in hot pursuit and managed to catch up with the thief on the bus and get my computer back to me. Thank you Treasure! It is now 8.30pm and I have a three-hour flight ahead of me. I couldn’t watch a movie because I left my headphones at home (and they apparently don’t give them out on planes any more). I’m rather hungry after rushing from the laptop fiasco to my connecting fight and haven’t eaten since I left home at 2pm today, but I now have to wait until they decide to roll the food cart down the aisles. This journey has made me realize something important: Airline travel sucks! Anyone who thinks otherwise and thinks that traveling is somehow glamorous and exciting, just hasn’t done it often enough in my opinion. My advice to anyone contemplating an interstate adventure is this: If you have to get from point A to point B and you’re not in any great hurry and you have the choice between making a road trip of it towing your rolling little trailer home behind you or flying there, DRIVE! I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and I guess I needed this realization right now. I’ll be honest, I did get kind of burnt out after this past summer of non-stop events and road trips that took me thousands of miles over several state lines through Oregon, California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington and all the way north again to Canada and back. It was hard work, and after my last trip my health took a turn for the worse. I took some time off, pondered my life choices, then pulled myself together to finish this issue. So now here I am, on a plane, comparing the two ways of travelling and realizing that all those times I exhausted myself driving from event to event across the country in that big old heavy Hudson, even with the break downs and all, was worth it. The RV, road tripping life is still the best way to travel, by far! Despite the challenges it is still what brings me the most joy. For starters, how good is it having everything you could ever need at any given time easily accessible at any moment? Being able to stop whenever you want, to eat whenever (and whatever) you want, to sleep (comfortably in your own bed) any time you want without screaming babies and the pervasive drone of jet engines in your ears? Utter bliss! And don’t even get me started on the joys of changing scenery and amazing views and historic sights and tumbled down old wooden barns… (sigh) Autumn is my favorite time of the year and my home town in Oregon is looking particularly spectacular at the moment. We never had these dramatic changes of the seasons back in Australia, so I find this season the most mesmerizing of all. I don’t like the heat of summer - it makes me cranky! But in Fall, the temperatures are perfect with crisp cool evenings and sunny mild days and the changing colors and falling leaves just lifts my spirit and reminds me of the marvel of nature and its ways of renewal and growth and makes me realize that this life I have created for myself is the best way I know to honor that. As my season of road tripping comes to an end and I pack my little trailer away for the winter I can give myself permission to relax for a while, just like nature is doing. And that little voice in my heart reminds me that a little bit of down time is OK, because it means we’re still growing. We all have a springtime’s worth of color and vibrancy budding within us even if we can’t see it as winter approaches. Happy Holidays everyone! Photo by Teresa Schmidt Follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/vintagetrailermagazine To follow Lisa’s adventures visit the Vintage Trailer Magazine YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/vintagetrailermagazine vintagetrailermagazine | 3