January 15, 2022 

(Hebrew Follows – גרסה בעברית בתחתית – לחצו כאן לדלג על האנגלית)

We are “stuck” in Florida, waiting for some repairs to be done at Airstream of Tampa. Pity us 😉

It is still very hard to find sites at campgrounds in Florida during the winter, and we are wondering if we should head a little west after fixing the rig. It’s hard to imagine leaving this perfect weather in the middle of winter for anything else. But – we will let the stars speak and the ways be shown to us.

This adventure is not all smiles and beautiful scenery (although there are a lot of both), this adventure is meaningful to us both in so many ways, we are slowly learning to realize.

**Clarification – For those reading here first time  – most of the writing here will be done by me – Michal, so sometimes I will write in plural, and others as singular**

Daily life may seem like really “normal” functioning, plus a little extra. Taking care of the dogs, feeding them and taking out for walks, cooking, cleaning, laundry are all part of our daily routine. We both still work a little and for that we need to find places with either WIFI or a strong cellular connection so we can be in touch with the people we work with. In addition there all things related to to mobility – Planning, packing, driving, campground bills, reservations, constant tracking of cancellation systems for desired campgrounds, and then settling in new environments on a regular basis. Just that can fill our days without even thinking of anything else. Most of the time this life is very satisfying and fulfilling, especially when recreation, touring, kayaking and exploring new places are added to them. In all of this lives a couple, naturally sometimes moody (mainly a certain one of the two), at times a quarrel or misunderstanding and a feeling of frustration may occur too. For now we find each other’s company to be a great deal, while once in a while we zoom with family and friends.

I really really really! Miss my son Laor, my friends and family in Israel and in the Princeton area and hope to meet and visit them while living this nomadic life. Our friend Rachelle (from Princeton) visited. She stayed with the dogs and the rig while we were taking a short break in Mexico and we got to spend precious time together before and after while roaming together. She might even visit again soon. Anyways the plan is to meet Laor sometime in the coming weeks, and to arrive in Princeton in May, when I will also want to make a short trip to Israel.

I continue writing now, the morning after. The weather forecast showed a tropical storm expected to start at night, so we stopped everything we were doing and got everything packed and ready to move if needed, and also moved the rig away from the huge and generous tree we were lucky to park under for two days. At 6 am we awoke to a dramatic thunderstorm and then came the phone alerts to get shelter and high probability of a tornado heading our way in the next 30 minutes. Half of us was very calm and ready for anything, while the other half read all alerts and regulations as she sat away from the windows counting the minutes for the storm to pass. And here we are and all is well, thank god. A few drops on our tin roof and the sun shines again on Tampa Bay and on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

Lately I have been asking myself why I needed to move so far away from my comfort zone. Why deal with all of my biggest fears? Being removed from everything familiar, meeting myself without the distractions life provided until now, I realized the answer was embedded in the question – I really want to meet myself and the world without distractions. In about two weeks I will celebrate my 45th birthday and feel a new inner position towards life, a will to give and offer, to do something meaningful and to generally understand deeper who I am and what I have to give. A sort of route recalculation. Finding stability and anchoring without depending on anchors outside of me (or at least as little as possible). I realize that nature-adjacent living, with very little material belongings, the mobility and flexibility that comes with it, encounters with animals and sceneries and a life of simplicity, allow me a lot of freedom of mind and being. I think I could say that life in this open world, despite the challenges and hardships, allows me to be open to something bigger than me and connected to myself and my essence. All of this while experiencing so much beauty and fulfilling a life-long dream.

I end this post on a positive note, while the sun rises. I didn’t know what will be written here, and I suspect myself of writing mainly to gather my thoughts and process my feelings. If through that I could update those of you who are interested – we all win.

We will meet in the next post, hopefully sometime in the near future.

Thanks for being with us.

Michal & Elan