Adventure Feeds on Convenience

• Wifi extender
  
• Cross-body fanny pack
  
• Microwave pasta maker
  
• Remote-controlled tower fan
  
• Clothes dryer
  

Well, yes, you might find all of these at the neighbors moving sale. But they are alike in another way.

They all whisper "I'll make your life easier."

Easier meaning "more convenient."

The Siren Song

Get online from your couch. Carry stuff hands-free. Make pasta faster. Be more comfortable. Dry your clothes indoors.

We answer the siren song of convenience with each new purchase. We end up owning so many things we need a house to keep the conveniences...convenient.

Adventure Calls

Then while eating freshly-cooked pasta, enjoying a cool breeze, waiting for the laundry to finish, we pull a phone out of our fanny pack and connect to wifi. Scrolling through social media, it hits us. A desire for adventure. We want to see new things, try new foods, and meet new people.

But adventures come in all shapes and sizes.

You could hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Or ride your bike across the continent. Drive Route 66. Or go camping for the weekend.

How do you decide?

The Adventure Formula

Our family of four spent eight years traveling the US by RV. During our travels, we came up with a formula that helped us decide what adventure was right for us.

It’s this:

Adventure feeds on convenience.

The longer or more extreme you want an adventure to be, the more conveniences you have to feed it.

Finding a suitable adventure becomes a matter of deciding which conveniences you are willing to give up. And for how long.

Working the Formula

Can you give up a daily shower, refrigerated food, sleeping in a bed, and motorized transportation? Feed them to an adventure of a long hike or bike tour.

Can you give up speaking the local language, paved roads, easy access to electricity, water, fuel and supplies, and an indoor kitchen? Feed those conveniences to an overlanding adventure.

Can you give up most of your personal space, easy access to groceries, free laundry, all but one of your bathrooms, and long showers? Feed those conveniences to a long boating adventure.

What We Fed Our Adventure

Our family sifted through every aspect of our lives to decide which conveniences we could and couldn't live without.

But we didn't know if we could give them up for good, so we put a timeframe around it.

One year.

What conveniences could we give up for a year?

• Individual bedrooms
  
• Second bathroom
  
• Garage
  
• Yard
  
• Most of our belongings
  
• Familiar surroundings
  
• A hobby vehicle

But we had to keep:

• A house to go back to
  
• Motorized transportation
  
• Sleeping indoors in the same bed every night
  
• A shower
  
• A bathroom
  
• An indoor kitchen
  
• Refrigerated food
  
• Heat and A/C
• Speaking the local language
  

We fed our conveniences to an adventure and it grew into the shape of a one-year full-time RV trip.

The Diet Changes

During that first year on the road we learned another thing about conveniences.

The longer you don't have something, the less you miss it. Meanwhile, the taste of adventure is addictive. As you get used to a simpler life, you begin to question what your adventure could grow into if you fed it more.

We went back home and sold our house. Our adventure grew from one year to eight. We visited more states and enjoyed more experiences than we could have ever fit into one year.

When our kids became adults and moved out on their own, we gave up the convenience of a large fifth-wheel RV and truck. That allowed our adventure to change into the form of a Class B campervan. We could fit in a parking spot, get food at drive-throughs, and camp in places the previous RV wouldn't fit into.

Adventures Have Seasons

Our RV season ended. We're back in a house. Couch by leaf blower by microwave popcorn maker, the conveniences are creeping back in.

But a new remote job brought opportunity with it. Our adventure is looking a bit hungry.

It's time to decide what to feed it this time.