A big part of this adventure for me is about the people you cross paths with along the journey and what they bring into your life.
So far 2 people stand out for me….. one is our cute little neighbor with great stories and the other is a neighbor with life changing advice..
We met our neighbor John who has a dog named Sam and a cat named Batman. Of course I wanted to meet this dog named Sam as he was big and very cute. John started talking to Bill and I went right over to meet the dog. When he said my dog’s name is Sam and he is so strong. I was like of course he is… his name is Sam…like my dad.
This man was a great story teller. He told us about all the different places he has lived and that he sold his house here in California and was living in his airstream motorhome. When he would tell his stories he would mention his ex-wife and he would say she was sort of an actress. Of course this made me curious about who she might be. After a couple of days of listening to his stories and getting to know about him…he was talking about some of the LA parties he had been to at the Spelling house etc…and Bill finally dropped the question “what did your wife play in?” and he said “oh a couple of shows… Dynasty and Dallas and some movie with Patrick Swayze”.….I am thinking OMG are you kidding Dynasty…my pre-teen years were spent watching this show and dreaming about owning clothes with big shoulder pads, high heels and lots of make-up…He said ya it was ok for awhile meeting all those people , but I don’t know you get tired of it after awhile.
Bill and I came back to the trailer and googled his wife’s name just to see pictures of her….Her name is Tracy Scoggins. He is a cool guy…I like John.

The first or second day we arrived and we were all bummed out about not being able to make it to Mexico we met one of our neighbours Greg. He came and introduced himself to Bill…I was inside listening to them talk through the trailer window and despite the rain and all the gloomy weather we had been having this man seemed really happy…you could just hear it in his voice, the way he was excited about everything he talked about or described. I heard a deep spirituality in everything he said. Now I was curious and had to get up and take part in this conversation as I hadn’t talked to anybody but Bill in what seemed like days……When he asked Bill and I what our plans were I am sure we seemed sort of down, as Mexico was such a huge part of our trip planning…..He told us he didn’t really have a plan and that him and his wife had another couple with them and they were just going to get up each morning and decide what they were going to do and where they were going to head. I thought this sounds cool, but I don’t know if that is what I want to do. Maybe because society says we always have to have a plan and be thinking about what are we going to do next…instead of living in the now like the Eckert Toole book The Power of Now. Of course we all like to have a plan and be in control right? Greg said to me that sometimes you just have to be open to what is going to happen and not to focus too much on the fact that we were going to maybe miss out on Mexico. He said maybe this is where you are supposed to be right now and I said to him you are right maybe we aren’t going because something bad might have happened if we would have got caught in the storm or whatever harm might be out there for us.
He told us that his life had changed so much since he found out he had a terminal illness. I stood there dumbfounded when he smiled and said he has never been happier in his life. He is just going to take each day and live it.
He was excited for us when we came back from the zoo and told him about the animals we had seen and he said isn’t it just amazing what god has put out there for us to enjoy if we are just open to it….I definitely had an ahhh moment as Oprah says….
Greg and his friend Bill left the next day and decided they were going to Arizona . Bill told us to call them when we were in Colorado and they would show us around. Bill sounds like a real outdoors person who skis and hikes and would be able to show us some good spots.
Greg came over to say good-bye. He shook our hand with a huge smile on his face and said to us “have a great life!” …..who says that??? Someone who understands how precious life is…. As he turned and walked away from me I couldn’t help but feel I had met Greg somewhere before….or that his message was sent to us to really live our life fully both on this adventure and just in general and to stop and enjoy the now instead of always thinking about what comes next….
Thank you so much Greg. I hope our paths cross again along this journey. I read your blog and it sounds like you have a wonderful daughter…