Looks like it’s going to take 2 full weeks, 14 days, to make Montreal. Guess I’m not the road warrior I thought I was, but I just can’t imagine pushing that hard for that long. Also, I guess I can’t just drop in on my Mom, who I haven’t seen in nearly 10 years, for a single night. (We’ll be back later to spend a couple weeks with her.)
I’ll be reconnecting with an uncle and aunt I haven’t seen in nearly 30 years, staying with a musical buddy who’s slept on my couch, staying with a friend who just moved from here a few weeks ago, and meeting a couple folks who’ve become incredibly close online but whom I’ve not yet hugged in real life.
Update 1:Thanks to Jerry Kennedy‘s reminder nudge, we checked out Couchsurfing.org and found a place in Albuquerque.
Update 2:I didn’t check with enough people in Toronto, so one of them checked with me. H’ray for Debs, my musical friend in Toronto!
We’re off to Hoquiam, Washington, leaving tomorrow morning. (I didn’t know where it was either.)
We leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow, drive 12 hours, and stay with Ralph and Kelly and their kids.
We will eat. We will play music. We will have peace.
Funny how things kept bouncing around, not knowing where they were going to land; even our plans with Ralph and Kelly changed in the past 18 hours since we first talked about it.
That could be a noun, were it hyphenated, but it’s a short phrase describing a need.
We have luggage. It’s pretty battered. It has served us well, but it’s nearing the end of its own personal journey.
What have you personally used for lugging stuff around (that’s what you do with luggage, you lug) that you’d never leave home without? What would you recommend for a family of 3 who don’t have a budget but still need good solid luggage?
What I really want is Joe’s trunks (4 of them) from Joe Vs. the Volcano. I suspect that’s not in my immediate future.
Caitlyn 'Smokie' JamesI’ve busted in here to ask you something. It’s Caitlyn … the Canfields will be staying at our place in August.
Joel & Sue agreed to give me some space to do a fun little post pre-launch of their nomad’s adventure. I’ll hit send before they can do a full proof-read. You’ll see why.
Seriously, folks, who are these Canfields? Have any of you met them in person? Would you let them stay in your house?
I don’t have time to be cautious and subtle so I apologize in advance for being a bit crass….
First, I get they’ll be living in the house so opening up the medicine cabinet is reasonable. We’ll take most of the anti-psychotic drugs with us; the Warfarin can be moved into the shed – we rarely use it for people, but we have friends with a tendency to forget to go home and at the right dose, the Warfarin just makes them feel a little woozy and they decide it’s time to go. Nothing serious. Of course, we use it on the pests, too, but it smells so nasty when they die in the walls. Anyway, my question is, are Joel and Sue the kind of people who will use up your Tylenol if you leave half a bottle sitting there?
Second, Fiona seems like a cute kid, but is she really 6? Apparently, she reads chapter books, flies at the sight of dogs, and has her own website. Makes me wonder if this is one of those sting operations the cops do when they pose as teenagers online to lure pedophiles. In this case, someone may have mentioned all the 6 foot deep holes we’ve been digging in the yard. The cops may have set up this kind-of-quirky family to infiltrate our home and networks. Fiona may very well be a donut eating 35-year-old with his own kid in kindergarten.
You see where I’m going with this. The Canfields might not be normal.
There’s this other thing. We LOVE our dog. Not in that nutty way that people can be with dog nail polish and bows in the hair; it’s just that we don’t see why people make their dogs eat on the floor. RK (Racoon Killer) has his dog dish on the table when we eat our dinner. I’m afraid Joel might try to change this. I dunno, I’m thinking he might be worried when RK takes an innocent little lick off Fiona’s plate. Problem is, RK has never taken direction all that well. Without a whole long story, let’s just point out that I only have 3 fingers on one hand. That’s 3 fingers total, out of 2 hands total. My question to you? Do you think I should tell them in advance about this?
As long as they don’t deviate from the regular routines nothing will go wrong.
In fact, I’m writing up some stuff for them (you can read about that at http://ImaginingBetter.com on July 7th) so they will know what the routines are and a few helpful hints. Don’t look Bruce, the neighbour, in the eye, that kind of thing. It’s a nice neighbourhood, but Bruce is a little touchy. Most of the rest of them just leave us alone. Walk on the other side of the street, skip us when collecting for charities – really respectful. Not too many nosey parkers.
Other than feeding the dog, we aren’t expecting much. Lock the doors when you leave, water the crop on schedule. Harvest time should coincide nicely with the Visa bill arrival, if the watering is done right. That’s it.
If there’s anything you believe is important for us to know before we turn our house and our dog and the crop over to Joel, Sue, and Fiona (if that’s even who they really are) can you leave some comments here… or send me an email, easy2remember@caitlynjames.com, you know, so they don’t intercept the communication?
As I was making lunch she sat at the counter telling me about how boring our house is.
“I’ve seen every room in the house, and no matter how many times I look, there aren’t any new rooms. I wish we could add two hundred million more rooms so I wouldn’t be bored.”
Two hundred million is her favorite (or at least most-referenced) number lately.
The little one, like her Daddy, seems to thrive on constant stimulation. She’s infinitely curious, which is probably the source of her voracious reading.
So here I was thinking about how crazy wonderful this last week has been since we launched this site and already have a workshop in place in Vancouver, BC in August. I thought to myself, ‘funny that things really take off when we decide to go somewhere else to hold a workshop. I wonder why we couldn’t do a workshop like that right here?’ Then it hit me – we could!
Sure we want to travel and work. But before we start our travels, let’s do a workshop in Sacramento for virtual assistants. So I called my buddy Jeff Louie at Capsity Offices and we quickly secured the venue for the July 9, 2010 workshop. Thank you Jeff for sponsoring this event for us. So if you’re a virtual assistant in the Sacramento area, check out the workshop to help you build your business. We’d love to have you! And please, share this with other VAs you know in the area.
I’ve been busy working with individuals and businesses who would like to sponsor and support our efforts to work while on the road. This week I’m specifically working with those who want to sponsor and support the workshop for virtual assistants we are planning in August in Vancouver. We are working to create a situation where each sponsors and supporter receives as much value from their support of our efforts as we receive. That way everyone wins!
So here are some things I’m working on this week to gain support for our trip to host a workshop for virtual assistants in Vancouver.
Contacted 4 organizations related to the virtual assistant industry for sponsorship in exchange for promoting their organizations in every way possible
Contacted an additional organization we do business with to discuss possible sponsorship
Contacted individuals who are willing to contribute physical product, such as a book or CD, for give aways at the workshop in exchange for promoting their services and product. We already have 2 confirmed and are awaiting details to announce shortly.
Contacted Virtual Assistants around the world asking to support the cause by purchasing one or more of our products for Virtual Assistants, such as the book The Commonsense Virtual Assistant – Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee, or the workbook, Building Blocks: Succeed as a Chief Virtual Officer, in exchange for promoting their businesses.
There has been great response to date and lots of support and well wishers. Donations are beginning to come in and those who are not able to give monetary support are asking how else they can support the cause. Here are ways you can show your support.
Click that Donate button on the left and make a donation of any amount.
Click on the Store button on the navigation bar and make a purchase. More items will be added soon.
Follow us on Twitter (@NomadCanfields) and retweet our posts.
Share this blog with everyone you know and mention it on Facebook.
Thank you to those of you who have already shown your support in some way or another! Watch for updates daily. We’ll be acknowledging our supports on our Shout Outs and Ballyhoo page.
Bearing in mind that nothing’s final until noon on June 28th, here’s the tentative itinerary should this Canadian shakedown cruise take place:
Thursday, July 29th—Drive 10 hours to Portland Oregon. Stay with Debi Leonard and her very own Craig.
Saturday, July 31st—Drive 4 hours to Everett Washington and stay with Brad and Kristy Trnavsky.
Monday, August 2nd—Drive 2 hours to Vancouver where Caitlyn and Ian will give us a place to stay for approximately 3 weeks, depending on their schedule. During our stay, we plan to
find places for me to do house concerts
put on training/coaching events for virtual assistants
host VA mixers, perhaps once a week, at a deserving local eatery
connect with as many friends-of-friends as possible
walk, nap, smell, hear, enjoy, hold hands, dream, write, smewch, snack, cook, and more
Wednesday, August 25th—Depart Vancouver. I wonder where we’ll go. We don’t need to be home until September 3rd.
As Best Beloved and I plan a life as nomads, we’re looking for ways to create mutual benefit; the proverbial ‘win/win’, for ourselves and the other lives we touch, or could touch.
The folks who are putting us up on our first trip are getting business coaching, cooking (I’m very good) and music (all modesty aside, or shoved under the mattress even) I’m a great songwriter. We get something precious to us (a bed at night and a home cooked meal) and they get something they value.
It’s always nice to have a little extra in the travel fund, but traditional sponsorship won’t cut it here. We don’t want to wear jackets with a swoosh everywhere we go, or be seen publicly drinking from a silver beverage can or any of that.
We want to find sponsors to whom we can offer something they value, something they can get best from a traveling family of remarkable people, and who’ll consider the material contribution small by comparison.
Oh, you know there’s gonna be a book. I’ll be posting pre-order forms for the book/DVD/set but clearly, you’ll want something now! now! now! and not just a book and DVD a year from now.
I’ll be shooting endless reels of film (yeah, I know it’s not reels, nor is it film; work with me here) over the coming year of experimentation. While I’ll be posting bits and pieces, odds and ends, the reel stuff (ha!) as far as longer videos will be supported by and available to our sponsors. Which, y’know, means you.
