Aug. 17, 2016

Camping Blues!

Hello friends.

How are all doing on this hump day! I hope all are well and resting comfortably at home. I’m currently at a McDonald’s, right outside Philadelphia, using their WIFI to send this post. I had to drive 34 miles to the nearest camp ground, across the river in New Jersey.

 I started my Pennsylvania gig on Monday and it could have not come at a better time for me on this tour. As you read on my last blog, the funds have run dry and its day by day now for the rest of the journey. The gig is a remolding job with a local contractor, who has plenty of work lined up for the next few weeks. The pay is also up there for the type of work I’m doing for him. His name is Chris and I will tell you all about the experience this weekend, once I get a chance to write it.

I had to really take a step back this weekend and reassess my approach to this journey. I’ve been so focused on a timeline and sticking to a schedule of two states a week, that it became obvious right from the start that it was not going to be feasible. I still tried, but it was stressing me out a bit. There are too many factors involved in determining the amount of time I will stay in one place, including weather, cost and job availability. If you have followed me from the beginning, I made it a goal to be done and back in Arizona by December of this year. Plain and simple, it’s not going to happen. I wanted to beat the cold weather back home and be ready to put the book together the first of the year.

Now the strategy is to complete this adventure with no timeline. I will have to change my frame of mind and be determined to finish the goal of fifty states no matter how long it takes. Despite the occasional homesick periods I experience or the less than satisfying nights I’m going to continue to encounter in the next few months, I made up my mind to go forward. I will continue to look for better jobs and be more aggressive about my pay scale. I should be able to find work at every stop, but it will leave me with an extremely tight budget, and the possibility of having to stay in  one place for a while, now exists. I have to strictly spend my earnings on food gas and bills, nothing else.  Lots of dollar menus and two meal days will be in the works from now on. Maybe down the road things might turn for the better, but I doubt it.

Yet I still continue to enjoy all the simple things I experience on a daily basis. The new people I constantly meet and the places I only dreamed of visiting my entire life. There is so much more I want see that lays just ahead, if I just stick it out a few more months. I know I will never regret the effort and sacrifice I’ll put in, the rest of my living days.

So on a good note, I’m really enjoying Philadelphia. It’s a great city with a cultural diversity and an east coast attitude to match. I’ll write about it next time.

Have a great night and thanks for your support! #Yo-Ga-Fla

Juanjohn