Have you been reading Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights? He has a great line in it that resonates with us as we listened to it on Audible (definitely the preferred way to engage with this book). It’s no wonder it struck a chord with us, since Matthew is a fellow Airstream owner and nomad.

I’ve never cared much for destinations. The idea of landing is too finite for my imagination and sense of song. Give me a direction and a sixteen lane highway with room to swerve and explore along the way. Like jazz, I prefer to see life as a river.

After a change of plans, we thought we’d just hop across a couple of states to make our way to family. Little did I know and lest I be reminded that one of the gifts of this trip is not just the destinations, but the stops along the way… the ones you aren’t expecting… the ones with low bars…the ones unwritten and set in stone as magical.

We had just spent about a month in driveways, airbnbs, and apartments. We loved seeing their lives, appreciated being fed, being nourished by relationship. But also, we were fish-out-of-water. We didn’t quite fit. Our narrative was not the norm. So here, along a strand of “in betweens,” we found ourselves again.

We thought the kids would miss the toys, miss the friends. But they also had been a bit out of their element and were now back in it, everyone a bit freer because of it.

• We stayed: Little Beaver State Park (WVA), Chimney Rock (KY), Steckler Grassfed Farms (IN) (five stars!), Babler State Park (MO)
• We explored: Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, KY, Steckler Farms (one of the kids favorite spots where their time was filled with farm chores), the Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis
• We ate: restaurant at Shaker Village, meats and cheeses from Steckler, Union Loafers for pizza in St. Louis
• We drank: Urban Chestnut Brewing Company
• We listened to: John Denver

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