I Wanna

Denny and I finally got to hitch up to The Beast Friday afternoon at 4PM and pulled out of Elkhart shortly thereafter. We made it to Milan, Ohio before calling it quits for the day because we had spent most of it standing around waiting for the repairs to the rig to finally be finished. A very late meal of our last can of Skyline chili, a quick walk for Patches and we were ready for bed.

The next morning I distracted Patches with another walk (she knows the signs of us preparing to de-camp) and was stopped by a neighbor who complimented Patches. He had several questions about our rig and when I mentioned that we were fulltimers he said, "I wanna do that someday". People, the man had to be 75 years old. If you aren't already on the road full time by the age of 75, what on earth makes you think you will do it now?

Believe me, after twelve years on the road we've heard every reason why a person can't yet sell their house and hit the road. And every one of them is good. But if you really wanna, you will. I have to admit when I hear "I wanna" the voice in my head is saying "yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah." And my smile when I look and nod my head at their reasons probably has a bit of pity in it. Because someday they'll be thinking "coulda, woulda, shoulda."

The reason this bile of mine comes up? Denny's favorite cousin, Wanda, died Friday morning. Cancer killed her. Wanda lived life large. She was well educated, well traveled and well loved. I don't think there were any "I wannas" in her life. And that's the way life should be.