I’m a true believer in needing opposition in all things. Its hard to experience joy when you don’t know sadness. Beauty is all the same unless you’ve also seen something ugly. Travel and living adventure is fabulous, but only if you also have downtime.

We had a great time in Florida this winter, and I felt our pace was unhurried. We spent 14 weeks just bopping around the state from place to place and experiencing the different environments and ecosystems the state had to offer.

Then we headed west, and things started picking up. We ran into friends along the Emerald Coast, in New Orleans, and had a few meet-ups in both San Antonio and Austin. Combine friends with big cities, lots of tourist attractions, and plenty of outdoor activities and suddenly we started running ourselves ragged.

Its been a real struggle for me. More than just our most recent schedule, however, I’ve had an underlying feeling of needed a bit more community, and honestly less route planning would go a long way in reducing my stress levels. A frantic schedule on top of those feelings led to me being a bit of a mess the last few weeks. I apologize if you’ve seen me and I’ve been ragged, tired, and a bit short with my attention span.

We’ve been holed up in Hot Springs, AR for almost a week. In a campground where most people only spend a night, we’ve been here six and its been fantastic. Drizzly, overcast weather has helped keep us indoors to just get things done. We’ve been cranking on school, work, blog organization, and I’ve even read a few books.

While its a temporary fix, slowing down and spending a week in places where we normally would only spend 3-4 days will hopefully help us bridge the gap until we execute Phase 2 of the Currently Wandering plan. While we aren’t exactly sure what that phase will look like, we have goals and and ideals we’d love to incorporate into our family life that are difficult to do full time on the road.  So, maybe we’ll graduate to a more hybrid approach. Whatever we end up doing, this year is bound to be exciting!