At the ice cream social the other day we struck up a casual conversation with Sandy who was a nurse during her career. Her passion? Saving up and paying her own way on medical mission trips to foreign countries in Africa, South America, Europe, about a dozen countries as I recall that she named. Kenya was her most recent visit for three weeks to help people needing medical care. She even saved a man’s life on one of the trips. Talk about fulfillment. She misses her trips but stopped because her health condition changed. What a fabulous person with a wonderful life story.

Carolyn was at the ice cream social, too. The conversation started casually enough with me almost butting in. Everyone said I wasn’t doing any such thing, and that I was welcome to join in. She is passionate about genealogy, and has traced her lineage back to about 1100 A.D. She teaches genealogy and shares what it’s like to pour through records at county offices to trace various people’s family history. She even traced the lineage of the people on the Louis and Clark expedition! It was quite interesting, and I thought perhaps that was the end of her story when she began to share how she and her husband moved every few years to Saudi Arabia, Canada, other countries and various states. Some countries allowed her to work, some not. She started programming Fortran (a computer programming language) in 1961 at Cape Canaveral in Florida and remains active in computers. She knew many of the early astronauts, and thoroughly enjoyed her work before retiring. Fascinating to listen to, and I look forward to talking with her again to hear more.

And there’s Vicki who attended college nine years, attained an undergraduate degree in nursing, a master’s degree in medicine, and a doctorate in some related field, and eventually was essentially running a VA hospital helping U.S. veterans rehabilitate from their wounds before retiring. Vicki is full of energy, and it’s easy to hear the passion in her voice when she tells her story.

Met a gentleman who retired a few years ago. Moved from up north to the southwestern states due to lower cost of living down here. He’s a great guy. Doing his best to live within his means. He shared actual numbers with me, but I won’t share details. Suffice to say that after a lifetime of working hard, life isn’t over, and finances can sometimes still be a struggle, especially when a water heater unexpectedly goes out, or something else needs repaired, and pensions aren’t quite what he was hoping they would be. But, he is positive and open to sharing his life story in a very good-natured manner. I talked with him a couple different times. What a blessing he was to talk with.

There’s plenty more to each person’s story, but I thought you might enjoy reading about the people we meet. Yes, the places we travel have tremendous beauty, and learning the history of places is interesting, but meeting the people and hearing what they’ve done and where their lives have taken them… that’s really what’s in it for us.

We meet Canadians, Minnesotans, North Dakotans, South Dakotans, people from states of Washington, Oregon, Colorado. I started to say all cold winter states, but we met someone from Texas! Mostly aged 55 and up, fun-loving, mostly in the warmer south for the winter, but sometimes we meet families who home-school their children while living full-time in their RV, or construction workers and their families who move from job site to jobsite and their 5th wheel is their home. Today is an increasingly mobile society. Sometimes corporate rules don’t fit someone whose address changes every few weeks, so there are challenges such as getting mail, but there are usually solutions, just different from what people who live in a house and don’t move around have.

Whatever age or economic bracket or social status someone has, they have a story unique to them. We’ve learned a lot about the lives of homeless people by striking up casual conversations with them and just listening to their story. There are amazing people out here, and so little time to get to know them.

Our hope is that you will reach out quickly today to someone you’ve never met, say hello, and ask them their story. Each person has taken a different path, struggled, conquered, loved, lost, and is willing to share when they know you’re willing to listen. We’d love to hear some of what you find out.

Thank you again for joining us… On Our Adventure!

Bob and Sherry